Based on a popular manga series centring around a young girl who is raised by assassins and eventually set on a mission to kill off some warlords who threaten the peace of Japan.More samurai than you can shake a stick at, yes we've seen this kind of thing before but for some reason that doesn't matter. There is nothing better than seeing a well made Japanese film about their past, yes this has a lot of artistic license and is more fantasy based but its still damn fun.A curious set of characters all led by their strict master and all played well by the cast, Aya Ueto as 'Azumi' is ultra cute, not the most authentic looking samurai but this is manga adaptation. The rest of the cast are unknown to me but do the job well, nothing too special or original but its entertaining. The deadly character of 'Bijomaru Mogami' is fun, an egotistical lethal merc who kills pretty much anyone for fun and is dressed all in flowing white, think along the lines of 'Vega' from the Street Fighter II video game franchise.Action is fast fluid and bloody when it kicks in as you might expect but its not over done. There is the odd moment of high flying wire work which spoils it in my view, they love that in Japan for some reason. The plot is simple and easily followed, the film looks great in terms of costumes, weapons and location and it comes across perfectly as an adaptation.7/10

I'm not really into martial art flicks but I do search the old ones still on VHS or when some pops up for almost no money then I pick them up. Azumi was one of them, part 1 and 2 was bought for almost 2 euro's and they were new, go figure that one. So I thought, well, it's going to be crap but hey, what a surprise. It clocks in over 2 hours and it never bored me. Of course as a exploitation/horror geek I was looking for the effects used and sadly sometimes they used CGI blood but the story and the so typical Asian way of filming overruled the use of CGI. Based on a comic luckily it didn't had that overacting or the so typical costumes used in the American flicks. Again, be aware that it is really an Asian flick by which I mean that you will need to understand their way of living and their way of filming. You know, flying through the air and the typical way of using ninja swords. It never is really gory or messy but the red stuff do flows. There are some jokes in it but what really attracted me was the gay samurai. Fully dressed in white and walking with a red rose. It's funny to see and perfectly filmed. It isn't an original flick but if you are open for Asian martial art ones than I surely would recommend it.

The movie kind of left me pretty skeptic from the very start. I mean, if this guy is so concerned with making peace, why on earth would he train 10 assassins to go and kill a bunch of people? It's not the smartest way to make peace I've heard of... And then he tells them to kill each other so only half is left. And they obey, like mindless zombies. Which is really odd because in the previous scene it was obvious they were all a bunch of fun loving and innocent kids. And then soon afterward they're not traumatized in any way, in stead they're joking around and laughing like the rest of us. Not to mention the girl later on who almost gets raped and has all her friends killed before her very eyes. But she just smiles and carries on like nothing happened.The fight scenes were OK. But they got pretty tedious after a while. 2 hours and 20 minutes is pretty long for a movie with no plot to talk about. And you never really knew who you should want to win, because pretty much all the characters were ass holes anyway. There was nothing that made the 'bad guys' seem like bad guys. And there was nothing heroic about the heroes either. So basically the movie was just a an excuse to have a bunch of guys get killed on screen with some nice action choreography slapped on top. The only obviously bad guy in the movie was that white clad dude. But he was also the weakest character, simply a typical anime stereotype.I give the movie a six out of ten, feeling pretty generous. Because I did still enjoy the action, and there were some touching moments, however surreal they felt.

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.