Belladonna of Sadness (Japan, 1973)

After being banished from her village, a peasant woman makes a pact with the devil to gain magical ability.

Belladonna has that genuine 70's vibe, and I can easily picture The Beatles suddenly starting to play during its lively watercolor imagery. There's lots of still images which are meant to speak for themselves, and they really do convey every bit of horrifying and erotic fantasies dwelling underneath the paint. It gets extremely surreal at times, and often it feels like you're on a jazz-infused acid-trip. 

It may be hard to fully grasp the story, but the amount of crazy things practically spewing out at the viewer makes it very re-watch friendly. Truly a visual treat. Not exactly for viewers without patience, but a stunning film if you allow yourself to be drawn into its fairytale-like world. 

Genre: Animation/Drama/Fantasy

Hiroshima Death Match (Japan, 1973)

Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hit man and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo (Sonny Chiba) draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono into a new round of bloodshed, culminating with the tragic demise of the young Yamanaka.

In Hiroshima Death Match (a.k.a. Deadly Fight in Hiroshima), director Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale) basically lets groups of Yakuza use Hiroshima as their own personal playground. It's works as a follow-up to one of the biggest Yakuza films in history; Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973). Loud crime thugs constantly fight it out and there's a ton of yakuza brawls taking place every 15 minutes. 

Fukasaku juggles many characters at the same time, and it's like we have a whole family tree of gangsters taking each other out. Director Takeshi Kitano is also a huge player when it comes to Yakuza cinema so if you plow through both of his and Fukasaku's films dealing with gangsters, a giant carp tattoo will probably appear all across your back.

Genre: Action/Crime/Drama

Lady Snowblood (Japan, 1973)

Yuki's family is nearly wiped out before she is born by a band of criminals. These criminals kidnap and brutalize her mother but leave her alive. Later her mother ends up in prison with only revenge to keep her alive. She creates an instrument for this revenge by purposefully getting pregnant. Though she dies in childbirth, she makes sure that the child will be raised as an assassin to kill the criminals who destroyed her family. Young Yuki never knows the love of a family, but only killing and revenge.

This is the original film which more than inspired Quentin Tarantino to make Kill Bill. It's a violent, bloody road of vengeance that Yuki faces when she tracks down the four people that ruined her family. The story originates from a manga by the same author who wrote the Lone Wolf and Cub series, so the man really had a thing for gory samurai violence. Meiko Kaji (Female Prisoner 701) is such a foxy and cool main actress, and she also sang the main theme of the movie. 

A sequel was released in 1974, called Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance, but wasn't nearly as good as the first one.

Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller