Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

metalrage666 There are certain types of movies you watch, each with their own conventions that over time audiences have grown to accept. For example, we know that explosions in space don't actually create noise, but for the sake of the movie, an audible "bang" increases the experience. Or in horror movies, no matter how fast or far a victim runs, the killer always ends up ahead of them. As in those cases, Japanese or Chinese etc films have their own idiosyncrasies, such as ninjas or samurai being able to defy gravity and all natural laws of physics, and no matter how cut up and injured they are, they can still manage to put up a pretty good fight despite exceptional blood loss. Unfortunately, I've never learned to accept or enjoy these particular conventions and Azumi has this very same nonsense in spades.Set during the Japanese feudal period or Sengoku period in the late 1500's & early 1600's, Azumi as a young girl is found kneeling beside her dead mother by a master swordsman and a group of kids. The Swordsman, Gessai, takes her with him and over time he trains all of them to be master assassins. Fast forward a number of years and we learn that there are 10 students who are now in their late teens and are ready for a "mission" that they have been training for all their lives. As their final test, they are asked to pair up and then kill their partner. The remaining 5, are then considered ready and fully indoctrinated as assassins to start their mission.Gessai and his 5 assassins have been tasked with liquidating 3 feudal warlords by the Tokugawa Shogunate in the hope that Japan will finally unify under one rule answerable only to the emperor and thereby end years of unrelenting civil war that threatens to destroy the country. Throughout the movie, the band succeed in killing 2 of the warlords and intermixed on their journey are constant conflicts and skirmishes with various other bandits and marauders. By the end of their journey only 2 of the assassins are left, Azumi and Nagara, and this leads us into the sequel to track down the third and last on the list. While the Sengoku period was a real event in Japans history and the 3 warlords or Daimyo were also real people, none of them were actually assassinated, the story of Azumi is purely fictional and while I can accept that I'm not watching a documentary, I can't help but feel that I'm not watching anything other than over- acted nonsense. Despite the flurry of katana and various other period style weapons, every fight is reminiscent of a Power Rangers episode and just as laughable and poorly acted. In many instances, swords are cutting off arms and heads etc but remain free of blood. Actors faces are constantly getting spattered with blood, but never on their clothes or hair and getting stabbed always seems to result in blood spurting out like a burst water main. I gave this movie a go as I was hoping that Asian cinema may have matured and these ridiculous conventions would have been dispensed with, but sadly that's not the case. The worst part in this is that NO ONE CAN ACT! There is absolutely no actor in this with any ability at all and I've seen better acting in soap operas. Even with the extended fight sequences, innumerable deaths, copious amounts of blood, explosions and various assorted violence, Azumi is an example of what happens when you make a movie and fill it with idiots who have no idea how to be directed. Everybody is nothing more than a bad cartoon in a 3 Stooges flick. Throughout the movie, characters commented on how beautiful Azumi was yet for me she spent the whole time with the dopey expression of a deer caught in headlights on her face and for a master assassin who has spent her whole life training for this one goal, she seems very easily distracted. I still don't get why one person with a sword is attacked by dozens of enemies also with swords one by one. I didn't understand it in Kill Bill and I don't get it in this. Attack the intruder en masse and no matter how good they are, they don't stand a chance. Problem solved. By the end of the movie the 2nd warlord has managed to escape out to sea when Azumi turns up to wreak havoc, yet she manages to miraculously appear on board ship somehow, (bone dry I might add), kills the feudal lord and then dives overboard before any one can move against her. When we see her again, she's back at the warlord camp where practically everybody has been killed, reunites with Nagara who "survived" an explosion with only a few cuts and scrapes and I kick myself for having sat through over 2 hours of the biggest waste of time since Twilight. This is really only for fans of the genre as for anyone else it'll be torture for the senses.

ebiros2 I'm a fan of Uyeto Aya, and 17 year old Uyeto Aya plays the main character Azumi . The story fairly closely matches the original manga by Yu Koyama, which was featured in Big Comic Superior from 1994 to 2008 (Part 1, and now Part 2 is on going), although it's compressed greatly to fit the length of the movie.An orphan Azumi is picked up by Gessai Obata (Yoshio Harada) to become a supreme assassin. Gessai's goal as he was mentored by monk Tenkai (Kei Satoh) is to build a team of assassins to kill off all the remaining leaders of Toyotomi clan so peace will come to society. He trains 10 assassins all teenage boys except for Azumi, which he prunes to 5. Azumi and her team succeeds in killing their first target Nagamasa Asano (Masato Ibu), but when they try to assassinate their next target Kiyomasa Kato (Naoto Takenaka), they get out smart by Kiyomasa's henchmen Kanbei Inoue (Ikki Kitamura). Kiyomasa now aware that he's being targeted for assassination, plans a counter strike on Azumi and her team.The sword fight and the general carnage that follows at the end somewhat resembles Kill Bill 1, although I think Uyeto Aya is several notches better looking than Uma Thurman.If you liked the style of Kill Bill, you'll be entertained by this movie. Aya Uyeto always succeeds in depicting character translated from comic, and this one is no exception. She brings Azumi to life. It's a treat to watch her in this role.Great action and drama from conglomerate of companies calling themselves "Azumi Seisaku Iinkai"

skandaluk-1 Im sure this will raise a few eyebrows but after watching Azumi i felt compelled to comment.I have to say after watching Versus a few years ago i was very keen to see this movie especially after reading reviews and seeing that the directors die-hard fans preferred this film over versus, how disappointed was i! I felt the film dragged on far too long for around an hr or so, give or take 20 mins, the action scenes looked forced and under budget, plus the story had no real depth or meaning leaving me bored and twiddling my thumbs a good few times throughout the film.Not to say that on paper this isn't a good film because on paper, it very nearly is! The direction was well above average, Ryuhei Kitamura has a great eye for a shot, beautiful cinematography with some scenes that left me stunned, his camera work was amazing and in parts of the film i was truly taken a-back to see a live action film that looked more of an anime than an anime converted to live action. Also i must mention that the script took me by surprise a few times, the master asking his pupils to kill their own team-mate was a fine example of this. But this still cant make up for the empty feeling Azumi left me with. Countless times i was looking at the timer on the DVD player to see how long was left to go. If the director had made an hr and half film with this concept he may have been on to a winner. As it happens Azumi was close to 2 and a half hrs.......All in all i wont be recommending this film to any of my friends as i have done with countless films from Asian cinema. I mean this movie isn't bad, this movie isn't great, maybe im let down by Azumi more than anything else. But one thing is certain though, that spark, that magic, that certain something that makes you call up someone the minute the credits are rolling, isn't.Peace

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.