In the first film, a woman in 1873 Japan must watch as four thugs kill her schoolteacher husband and son; they then rape her, and one of them keeps her as his captive. She swears revenge on all of them, but, after killing her new master, she is caught and sentenced to life in prison. Undeterred, she fucks all the guards in hopes of getting pregnant, for the sole purpose of bearing a child who will finish her mission. Mom, of course, dies in childbirth, and adorable little Yuki is handed over to a stern monk for swordplay training. That she exists and is raised only as an engine of violent revenge gives the film an undercurrent of poignancy, even as huge geysers of blood are squirting from torn arm sockets and necks. Director Toshiya Fujita employs a whole variety of effective storytelling devices, some of which Tarantino also uses.