FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Iseerphia All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Tweekums Azumi is the only girl in a group of ten orphans who have been trained as assassins in a remote area of Japan. They have been prepared for a mission to kill various warlords and when they are told that his mission is about to start they are overjoyed… then they learn there is a final test; each is told to pair up with their closest friend before being ordered to fight to the death! Those who survive, which obviously includes the eponymous Azumi, set off on their mission. The mission is everything; they are ordered not to get involved when a village is massacred as the attackers aren't their targets. Once they start killing their targets the others warlords hire their own killers to hunt down the assassins. By now some of those assassins are starting to question their mission and get involved with other people.If you are looking for realism this will probably disappoint you but if you want lots of full-on, over-the-top samurai action then this should be just the ticket. The action is stylish in a way that seems to introduce elements of Chinese Wuxia films to traditional Japanese samurai action. The fights are numerous, exciting and pretty bloody. Seventeen year old Aya Ueto does a fine job as Azumi; she makes a great protagonist as she dispatches goodness knows how many villains while still looking cute! The rest of the cast are decent too. Among these the most memorable is Joe Odagiri, plays Bijomaru; a camp but highly proficient swordsman who has been employed to kill the assassins. While the action is mostly exciting there are some shocking, somewhat disturbing, moments. Overall I'd recommend this to anybody wanting over-the-top samurai action without requiring anything too deep.These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.

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.

delightful-life Normally movies like this, whether it is Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or Twilight Samurai, they all have one thing in common, compassion, friendship, loyalty, etc, which are held so high that they are ready to sacrifice themselves for others, their family, their friends, their loved ones, and you feel so happy at having watched it.Azumi right in the first 10 mins of the movies commits the biggest crime of killing her own friends for no real reason. It was just shocking. It was as if she is the dumb sidekick of the villain and just follows orders blindly.By the time we reach the end of this long movie, you don't even care for Azumi, she has become that boring! And she is so invincible, that I was thinking, why did they even make this movie! She is never really challenged and she does not even get a paper cut anywhere, that is just plain ridiculous.And you cannot even compare in the very least the action of Aya Ueto (Azumi) to say Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger. Azumi is just too slow, and you can see so clearly that she is not good. I think the director thought they could just put in a pretty young face and the movie will just work out.Even the music in the movie is so out of place - its modern music, because of which it kept reminding me that this is a 21st century movie. There were so many many other issues. The very poor graphics, there was something wrong with all the sets, like the village, etc, there was something off everywhere.The movie has some good points thats why you see that it has at least that 6.9 rating at IMDb. But its not worth wasting 2 1/2 hours of our time.There are sooooo many good movies out there, just check the IMDb top 250, it should keep you entertained for years. :-).....Cheers!

kevin_crighton After a bloody battle, a General promises a Priest that he will train assassins, to bring about peace in the land. Years later, 9 boys and 1 girl, Azumi, are trained for the task.After having to kill someone close to her before she begins the mission, she carries it out without questioning. Not until she meets Yae a member of a group of traveling performers does she question what she is doing, until an act of violence, makes her realize where she belongs...Azumi is based on a Japanese comic. And you can tell from the direction of the movie by Ryuhei Kitamura that he's tried to capture the style of a comic book. I'd never heard of the comic book so don't know how close the movie is, but as a movie, it is fantastic. Not only in the fast paced direction, but also in a wonderful performance from Aya Ueto as Azumi. Despite only being a young girl, she handles the bloody action scenes very well, and in the quieter moments conveys Azumi's thoughts and fears.The rest of the cast all do well. As I've mentioned before in reviews, it's always hard to tell if a performer is doing well or not when it is in a foreign language, but I will watch a subtitled movie (which Azumi is) over a poor or badly dubbed movie.But first and foremost this is an action movie, and it delivers this brilliantly. From the smaller fights, up to the massive climax as Azumi fights on her own against a couple of hundred! Oh, and it is bloody. You get the feeling that there were crew members just of camera tossing buckets of blood onto the stunt-men and actors at times!!While this movie will probably never be regarded in the same league as some of the samurai movies from the past, it is exciting, violent, bloody and very impressive. And definitely worth watching.