Azumi (2003)
Genre: Action
Duration: 128 minuten / 142 minuten (director's cut)
Alternative title: あずみ
Country:
Japan
Directed by: Ryuhei Kitamura
Stars: Aya Ueto, Yuma Ishigaki and Shun Oguri
IMDb score:
6,7 (15.542)
Releasedate: 10 May 2003
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Azumi plot
"From The Ravages of War Raises An Assassin."
A warrior whose son is killed in a war is given the mission to kill the higher powers of Japan in order to stop the useless wars. He begins to train a team of fighters to complete his mission. One of those fighters is Azumi.
Reviews & comments
RuudC
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- 4636 messages
- 2529 votes
A film that clearly has its good and bad sides. The start is impressive and the training part is very cool (especially the moment when the master orders that each combatant must kill their partner in order to participate in the mission). Previously I had given this film a high rating, but in the end I literally choose the middle ground. Let me just say that the action looks good and neat. Aya Uetu is a beautiful young lady and has clearly immersed herself in sword fighting, but cannot prevent her character, like many others, from being quite meaningless. In the end I only found that metrosexual in the white costume really adding something.
That's not even the worst. After it becomes clear what the mission of the fighters is, the story gets bogged down in otherwise plotless good-versus-evil combat. Suddenly there doesn't seem to be a common thread anymore. Even that new storyline with the circus performers adds very little. After a series of confrontations finally comes the last one. It may be well executed, but that is often not the problem in Asian cinema. This movie just gets a bit boring and redundant after an hour. Within the genre there are many films that are simply better.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Lennert
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- 2412 messages
- 1400 votes
Actually a very mediocre film, but at the same time very entertaining. The soundtrack wouldn't look out of place in an 80's/90's DTV action movie with those bombastic guitars, while the characters are at least as meaningless. The action was gory, but at the same time so cartoonish that I really started to wonder if this movie wasn't based on a manga. Now that it turns out to be the case, I immediately understand a lot more about the way the action was shot, the amount of blood that flows and the poor character development, in that respect this film would probably have been a lot better in an anime variant.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the wide range of cool bad guys (that bishonen guy as the absolute highlight), the strange humor, the gory action and the at times very decent directing (again the 360 degree shot as an example). At first I only expected something completely different, more of a samurai epic than this over the top action movie. Really enjoyed it and looking forward to part 2.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Rick199O
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- 2 messages
- 76 votes
This is a very good movie, one of my personal favorites
Definitely recommended for fans of this genre
I give him a 5.0
Translated from Dutch · View original
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