Leofwine_draca AZUMI is a wonderful Japanese period swordplay epic that provides a pleasant contrast to the Chinese wuxia movies loved by cinema fans across the globe – popular titles like HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS and HERO. AZUMI is similar to these movies and at the same time a lot different: it possesses a great deal of verve and vitality of the kind you'd find in a Takeshi Miike movie and it's more action packed and colourful than any of those movies. This is a gory, blood spurting account of the assassin's creed, mixing in a bunch of assorted and despicable villains and all manner of varied battles and characters to keep things moving along nicely.The film begins with one of the most shocking twists I can remember, a touch that allows us to immediately empathise with the protagonists involved. From then on in, characterisation grows, while a series of vicious, expertly-choreographed battles keep the viewer enthralled. As the young heroine of the title, Aya Ueto is impossibly beautiful and impossibly deadly; a fitting combination. She's matched by a cast of skilled professionals, all of them playing familiar types – the aged and ruthless master, the effeminate and hateful villain, the monkey-like wizard.The movie is a visual treat and the colour palette provides a vibrant alternative to that seen in HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. Action-wise, the fights are thoroughly engaging and fully exciting, with excellent use of the camera to get across the adrenaline rush – Kitamura's bravura 360 spin around the protagonists as they fight on a beam at the climax, for instance. The last half hour of the movie is a huge pitched battle against hundreds of opponents, and it never bores for a second. A sequel followed two years later. This is what movie-making is all about!

Angelus2 Azumi is trained to become an assassin, however, as she begin to question her path in life, her enemies are not far behind.I have had friends rave about this samurai film, and according to one particular friend, it was the movie that immortalised the long forgotten 'Samurai' genre, but I found this film to be quite disappointing.The plot was very minimal, with no real character development and the script itself was very weak, the actors chosen to play their respected roles, simply did not do the trick; Aya Ueto, is awful as the warrior without fear, I liked her better in 'Attention Please!'..Now, if the plot, characters, script is terrible, surely the action will make up for it...No...The action is simply awful, I liked the occasional one slice kill, but it just seems to be rushed and all a big catastrophe.

Witchfinder General 666 Asian Swordplay cinema has celebrated a huge revival in the past years, and it seems that the overall opinion on "Azumi" of 2003 is a very positive one. I am a huge fan, especially of Japanese Chambara and Jidaigeki films, yet I will personally always prefer the great films in the field that have been made in the 60s and especially the 70s, such as the "Lone Wolf And Cub" (aka. "Kozure Ôkami" films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, the "Zatoichi" and "Hanzo The Razor" films starring Shintarô Katsu, "Lady Snowblood" starring Meiko Kaji or "Sex And Fury" starring Reiko Ike. This is not to say, however, that I am not interested in stylish present day Bloodshed à la Nippon, as I also enjoy recent Japanese Swordplay films immensely. "Azumi" in particular, however, did not blow me away like it obviously did many of the other users of this great site. The film is doubtlessly entertaining and stylish, but it also tends to get a bit monotonous. Eponimous heroine Azumi (Aya Ueto) is one of ten mighty young warriors who have been brought up by a master just to serve one purpose - to go on daring missions in order to assassinate warlords hostile to the Shogunate. When the Warriors are (supposedly) still in their late teens, they are called to fulfill their destiny... "Azumi" is stylish, bloody and action-packed from the beginning. The at the time only 18-year-old leading lady Aya Ueto is the cutest, most lovable killing-machine imaginable. The bloody fights are very well-done, even though not quite as gory as I expected them to be. The major problem of Azumi is the fact that it is slightly confused and monotonous at the same time. We basically tremble from one sword-fight into another, which is all fine, but which begins to get a bit tedious after a while. To me personally, the score also got pretty annoying occasionally. Still, the heroine, the bloody fights and the nice atmosphere, as well as a bunch of pretty original and demented villains, easily make up for the films flaws. Overall, "Azumi" is certainly no genre-highlight or must-see of any sorts, but it is nonetheless a fun flick that I recommend to my fellow fans of Chambara and Jidaigeki cinema.

sir-montag I'm a fan of movies like the Seven Samurai, and others like it, but this movie... It was frankly a yawn-fest.First off, I stopped watching this about half-way though because I got bored with it, so I'll be up front about not having seen the whole movie. The acting was sub-par, the villains and their motivations cardboard cutouts of any Asian warlord stereotype you've ever seen, the protagonists not much better.It seemed to try to imply that the situation was *serious*, that the bad guys were *evil*, but... Between the 'pop stars somehow landed a role in an actual movie' heroes and the 'warlord #12, #15 and #1324', it just failed miserably.In fact, literally every person on screen was a walking stereotype. It was that bad.Unless you're someone who was a fan of the original manga, or are very easily satisfied by anyone in a movie who swings a sharp sword around, prepare to be disappointed.