A cute assassin and her friends use their skills to make the country a better place - by killing the warlords! I wasn't too sure what to expect of this film but have seen better. The swordsplay in the directors' more recent 'Aragami' is much better than this - seek it out instead.
Considering this came from Ryuhai Kitamura, director of Versus, I was quite disappointed by the lack of gore and style. It has a few sporadic moments of both (loved the revolving camera gag) but this Shogun-style action film is pretty routine.
In Japan in times of war among clans, the master samurai Gessai (Yoshio Harada) raises ten orphans in the mountains, one of them the girl Azumi (Aya Ueto), and they become experts in martial arts. When they are teenagers, the master assigns them to a mortal test, and then the five survivors travel with him with the mission of killing three evil warlords of clans and keeping their nation united without plunging again into a bloody war.
"Azumi" is a great adaptation to the screen of a character of a manga, a Japanese comic book. The cinematography and the choreography of the sword battles are amazing, but the story is flawed. In my opinion, the journey of the orphans against the evil warlords loses sense when each one kills the respective best friend and when they see innocent people being slaughtered in a village and do not help them. Their friendship and bounds are destroyed with their first action, and their sense of justice is completely lost when they let the bandits kill the poor harmless villagers. The intention of making the group cold-blood killers is never reached and I did not like the destructive character of the master. But the movie is a great entertainment.
Azumi and Versus is why I'm so excited to see The Midnight Meat Train. This director, Ryuhei Kitamura, has a niche for creating some kick ass style in all his movies. Azumi is loaded with tons of cool, well choreographed action. Lots of interesting(and funny) characters. Plenty of drama, lots of humor, and much stylized violence with blood spraying all over the place. This movie is great. And the final battle scene, I must say, is unbelievably breathtaking. It literally sent chills down my spine. This girl kicked some major fu**ing ass!
Azumi was originally given an NC-17 rating, and although it is pretty violent, I believe the NC-17 rating was given for a rape scene that was later cut out. The blood here does flow, but it's not like it's in your face every 5 seconds. I also believe that The Midnight Meat Train is Ryuhei Kitamura's first American made movie. I just hope it's as good as some other pervious horror reviewers make it out to be. I hear The Midnight Meat Train is suppose to be insanely crazy and twisted. Can't wait to see it!
Anyways, I highly recommend Azumi! Get your hands on this movie as soon as you could.
Good, albeit unbelievable action, good plot too. A little on the long side, but still a good movie. A must see for ninja fans, or people that like great decapitations.
Simple in idea, wonderful in execution. The only reason it lacks an extra star is for failing to take itself seriously in places. With a smidgeon more integrity and confidence this film would have been awesome. As it is, it's merely very very good.
A jewel in Japanese cinema that you either love or hate. Beautifully shot and well-directed, this bloody film will blow you away! From the director of Versus :)
MCT:November 4, 2008
MCT:October 26, 2008
MCT:October 7, 2008
MCT:June 24, 2008
