I think I enjoyed this as much as the first one. Maybe not quite as good a film, but still quite enjoyable. Yuki kicks ass. I didn’t think she survived the first one though. A bloody tale of revenge, but this time she is entangled with the corrupt officials of the Meiji restorations secret police.

Yuki (Meiko Kaji) is still being chased by the police for all her assassinations (I guess she survived the first film). On a beach her foot gets caught in a rabbit trap and she is helped by a long haired man, and when the police catch up to her she sees him, and decides to give up. On her way to her execution some people kill the police and help her escape. She is taken to the leaders of the Meiji’s government secret police who want to use her to spy on an anarchist and get a secret document that can prove that they got their position by cheating, and creating a conspiracy that never existed and killed all the other anarchists. Yuki is turned by the anarchist, and is given the document, the anarchist is captured and she goes to his brother, a doctor, who turns out to be the man from the beginning. He helps her, but hates his brother so he doesn’t want to have anything to do with the document that would help a revolution, but he will try and use it to help the people of the slum he lives in. His brother is returned, but with the black plague, and the doctor gets it as well. Yuki goes to the secret police to give the terms to get the document, but the secret police burn the slums to the ground. Yuki escapes and finds the doctor is still alive with the document, and it is time for the final confrontation with the secret police chief and his boss. And you know it will be a bloody show down.

Another bloody tale of revenge, tempered with a political message about the government using it’s power to cement it’s power, and making anyone with different beliefs it’s enemy.

Now my biggest complaint is the sword fighting, but then I have been watching Katsu-shin films, and he is one of the kings of Chambara, so I can’t expect Meiko Kaji to be as skilled as him.