Azumi

"Azumi" is about a girl and 9 boys who are raised in the mountains by a master samurai. When they "come of age" their purpose, or mission, is revealed to them: carry out an order by the shogun to assassinate three warlords who would plunge Japan back into war.

I did like this movie, but the big downside for me was that the plot follows the typical ho-hum Action movie format... heroes fight many faceless bad guy minions along the way, occasionally encounter a "key" or really skilled bad guy, and in the end it culminates in the fight with the BIG bad guy. One of the reasons I love Asian cinema is to see things that are a departure from the usual format, so I guess I expected a little more from this movie.

Also, I don't mind graphic violence in films but there was a bit much in this movie (I will describe it as "constant"). I think movie violence is a little like the F-word... sprinkled here and there it can have real meaning and add punctuation or expression... 2 1/2 hours of it constantly, is kind of numbing. For the difference I am talking about, see the American film "Hostel" versus the Japanese "Audition".

As a samurai film it does not really strike a balance between character and plot development, and sword fighting. I am thinking of other films that do this really well like Yamada's "Twilight Samurai" or "The Hidden Blade", the "Zatoichi" film or TV series (not counting the horrid 2003 film!!) or take your pick of Kurasawa's films.

But, taken strictly as an uncomplicated action movie, I think it's entertaining and worth seeing.

If you're looking for a nice change to the regular martial arts fare coming from Hollywood these days, Azumi is a refreshing film.

The Villains, while still a little stereotypical are just psychotic enough to be fun.

The action is well paced, and the story adequate to drive the film towards it's inevitable climatic scenes.

The timing used during many of the fight scenes feels a little different to your typical Hollywood work, it's hard to pick the exactly difference, but it leaves you with a strangely different feel to the action on screen. The effects are great, the sets are great. I enjoyed the soundtrack, with scene changes often resulting in a sudden change in ambient sound - something that standard films tend to cover with sound or cross fades.

Overall a good solid film, don't expect an Oscar winning narrative, but the action is worth the watch.

My general impression about this movie was that it was too short, despite being about 140 minutes in length. I continued to think at least an hour after i've seen it.

The plot was good. Although the major point of this movie are the fight scenes, which were spectacular, they aren't leading the movie but are being led by the story. Again, the movie reveals to us the sternness of the Japanese character, one that never looks back and ready to achieve he's goal whatever the cost is. It also shows how small is the "life value" in their world.

The acting is good, the dialogs are all in place ( no scenes where the characters are saying things that are pretty obvious for themselves, and make them look stupid) and most of the characters are great. The Heroine Azumi is great. Beautiful, powerful but also shows her feminine side. She's determined in her mission to kill the warlords and has no second opinion about it. I also like the the teacher's character which i think represents the cold, brute mind ( heart ) of that time when life wasn't worth much. My favorite character is Kanbe'e. Shrewd, skillful samurai, that doesn't afraid to give his life or the life of his soldiers to protect his warlord. A very realistic character.

The character I didn't like is Bijomaru, Assassin with a flower. I think he's the only major flaw in this movie. He seems to be "too insane" and skillful at the same time and doesn't fit. More like a villain in the Chinese Kong Fu movies.

Fight scenes are great, no much to add. The visual effects and the wire work is great also. The score is unbelievable. It fits the movie perfectly and keeps you alert.

There is some resemblance to the Chinese "Hero" with jet Li. The main idea of both of the films is the same: A bunch of assassins tries to kill warlord(s). Although the visual effects in Hero are much better and the fights are impressive also, I still got lost in the movie's dialogs trying to understand the meaning of what was said and sometimes looked for the watch. The Chinese movies ( especially Hero ) concentrates largely on their philosophy, which makes them look a bit awkward, and less on the plot, which seems to stand still. Azumi "compensates" the philosophy time with ongoing plot and a lot of action, also providing us with some feelings for the characters.

If I had to choose between the two, I definitely would choose the Japanese movie.

Overall i enjoyed it much and would recommend it to anyone that likes action and does care for the plot.

Ryuhei Kitamura has developed quite a large cult following due to his massively entertaining genre-busting zombie/yakuza/martial arts hybrid film "Versus". Now he has given us "Azumi", a samurai film with a rock music soundtrack and young, attractive leads.

The film follows a clan of ten young assassins trained since childhood to carry out a special mission. Azumi, the lone female in the group is considered the most skilled of them all. Their master is an ex-samurai warrior who acts as a father figure to the teens. The assassins await the day of their mission with growing anticipation, until the day it finally presents itself. Their mission is to kill a shogun who is threatening to overthrow the ruling class of Japan. Quick to overestimate their own abilities, the assassins find their numbers dwindling as they battle the shogun's warriors including the sometimes-honorable, sometimes-manic ninja Saru and a mysterious feminine Samurai clad in white who's so good he has "never had to defend an attack". As things start going downhill for the assassins, Azumi begins to doubt herself and begins to long for the life of a normal Japanese woman.

This film is all about sword-fights and Kitamura delivers more than he probably should. People take on hundreds of swordsmen single-handedly and buckets of bright red gore are splashed about with every sword slash. While these fights are entertaining at first, they grow tedious as the hundredth person is killed. Not only that, but our heroes do not show any sort of skill that gives us reason to believe that they are capable of killing dozens of men effortlessly. Also, Kitamura has trouble finding the right lengths for his films. "Versus", "Alive" and "Azumi" are too long, while "Heat After Dark" is much too short. I really think if 10 minutes of slow-motion sword fights were cut this movie would flow much better.

Now, "Azumi" is not a bad movie, by any means. It's very entertaining, just a tad tedious. The characters are very unique and developed quite nicely, and Kitamura has a knack for giving us exciting camera angles. Although it does not live up to "Versus" (I didn't expect it to, and never compared the two until now) "Azumi" is still an entertaining film, and any fans of "Versus" should find "Azumi" a very good time. 7/10

I think that this movie is not just about warriors...is about their choices..power to accept that the good sometimes become evil... what is good some peoples it's bad for others...some scenes are so beautiful that they can make you cry... I think I can see this movie a million times for the man in white and the woman in black...to understand which of them is the good one and what is evil one...to understand the power of red color...The Japanese made from this film a paint same as "Hero".. Maybe for the majority of people who experienced this movie it's just an action movie but for me is a very special... See this film because first of all is a very entertaining!