Azumi

I'll be quick. The photo is sometimes fantastic and usually great. Cgi is nice, but is too cheap/flawed in some occasions, one example is the birds in the beginning.

I can't decide on an opinion on the fight scenes, either the choreography is quite bad and editing is good at hiding that, or editing wastes choreography.

Story is silly, but it should be, I got no problem with that.

Acting is acceptable for this kind of movie, is think. Sometimes it really stinks, but I blame the director for that.

Directing, the directing is a real disappointment, terrible. Timing is often way off. Characters are undeveloped and some scenes are composed really bad.

Overall good movie but with uneven quality. Best guess is that they just ran out of money.

I'm completely blown away, easily one of the coolest movies I've seen in a long time. This is the third Kitamura film I have viewed, and out of the three (the others were Heat After Dark and Versus), I can honestly say I believe this to be his best.

Don't get me wrong, I love Versus. It's a great film, but this one trumps it on nearly every level. From the first 10 minutes I was hooked, and it never let up.

This film boasts some of the best action sequences in recent memory, especially if you love samurai films. The movement of characters is unreal, some of the smoothest wirework I've ever seen. It feels very much like a living anime.

Anyway, seek this film out and buy it! Don't rent it, just buy it! You will thank me for it.

Incredible.

Thanks to the folks here @ AZN Films, I've had the good fortune of discovering a tremendous handful of standout foreign films ... movies that do not get the kind of play that they could on my side of the ocean but films, nonetheless, that are as powerful, insightful, and complex as any of Hollywood's best.

AZUMI is a tremendous step forward for the folks behind VERSUS. VERSUS is primarily an indie/zombie flick with a great twist ending. Don't get me wrong: I own VERSUS, and I've watched it twice, enjoying it more on the second viewing than I did on the first. But AZUMI is the kind of film that'll earn the talent far more respectability around the world -- as this experience deserves to be discovered by as broad an audience as it can.

The story is classic: a group of warriors head on to fight one final quest to rid their lands of evil ... but, as oft happens in tales of this nature, evil gets the upper hand. In the end, only Azumi -- a petite samurai who lost her faith along the way -- storms the stronghold to save her mentor, facing over 200 enemies in a sword-to-sword battle as much for redemption as it is for survival.

Granted, the film is not without a handful of campy moments, but they are easily dismissed against the backdrop of the warrior's epic struggle to accept the fact that -- regardless of how hard she tries -- she cannot escape her destiny.

AZUMI sports some of the best swordplay I've seen from anything I've purchased at AZN, and that includes the stellar ZATOICHI rebirth at the genius of Takeshi Kitano. Arguably, the only film that springs to mind that surpasses the battle is Jet Li's HERO ... but that film is in another category altogether.

I can't imagine anyone being disappointed with this purchase. It offers a terrific package along with a crisp transfer and a wonderful audio track.

Discover AZUMI, and discover what a contemporary samurai film is all about.

Not intended to be an accurate reference to feudal Japan, this flick is great fun and worth a watch. The characters have been modeled after some modern-day Anime characters and video game heroes, and the film itself felt like a paradoxic mix between the styles of "Kinji Fukasaku" and "Akira Korosawa" to me. A mix of Japanese pop-culture set in old Japan.

The camera-work was pretty good and the soundtrack fitting. The characters were sufficiently surreal to be unbelievable, but well suited to the genre.

The is a must see!

My general impression about this movie was that it was too short, despite being about 140 minutes in length. I continued to think at least an hour after i've seen it.

The plot was good. Although the major point of this movie are the fight scenes, which were spectacular, they aren't leading the movie but are being led by the story. Again, the movie reveals to us the sternness of the Japanese character, one that never looks back and ready to achieve he's goal whatever the cost is. It also shows how small is the "life value" in their world.

The acting is good, the dialogs are all in place ( no scenes where the characters are saying things that are pretty obvious for themselves, and make them look stupid) and most of the characters are great. The Heroine Azumi is great. Beautiful, powerful but also shows her feminine side. She's determined in her mission to kill the warlords and has no second opinion about it. I also like the the teacher's character which i think represents the cold, brute mind ( heart ) of that time when life wasn't worth much. My favorite character is Kanbe'e. Shrewd, skillful samurai, that doesn't afraid to give his life or the life of his soldiers to protect his warlord. A very realistic character.

The character I didn't like is Bijomaru, Assassin with a flower. I think he's the only major flaw in this movie. He seems to be "too insane" and skillful at the same time and doesn't fit. More like a villain in the Chinese Kong Fu movies.

Fight scenes are great, no much to add. The visual effects and the wire work is great also. The score is unbelievable. It fits the movie perfectly and keeps you alert.

There is some resemblance to the Chinese "Hero" with jet Li. The main idea of both of the films is the same: A bunch of assassins tries to kill warlord(s). Although the visual effects in Hero are much better and the fights are impressive also, I still got lost in the movie's dialogs trying to understand the meaning of what was said and sometimes looked for the watch. The Chinese movies ( especially Hero ) concentrates largely on their philosophy, which makes them look a bit awkward, and less on the plot, which seems to stand still. Azumi "compensates" the philosophy time with ongoing plot and a lot of action, also providing us with some feelings for the characters.

If I had to choose between the two, I definitely would choose the Japanese movie.

Overall i enjoyed it much and would recommend it to anyone that likes action and does care for the plot.