Shurayuki-hime

If you are the sort that some action is enough to satisfy you this will be a seven for you. The lead female is very beautiful and athletic however the storyline is bordering on retarded. I would recommend watching this movie just to see the girl swordfight because she's really quite spectacular. However the story is pathetic and the movie can't quite get off the ground because of it. There are some crude heavy handed attempts at character development but they are awkward and sophomoric. The fight scenes are fun but it's obvious the camera tricks were used to cover up the lack of skill of some of the fighters. Yumiko Shaku is a rare gem of a human being, it's a pity her skills and beauty were wasted on this skimpy retarded plot.

Based on "Lady Snowblood". Sort of a prequel, sequel, and remake at once. It is a good film in the end. Hoowever, some of th plots are just not explained and make us wonder why they were even thrown in. What was with that farmboy? Anyway, it takes place far in the future. We find Yuki (who was previously left somewhere in the Meji Restoration killing her smallpox-infected boyfriend with a short sword) in a group of samurai assassins, still a beautiful young woman. At twenty, she discovers that her employer was the one who led the brutal attack on her royal parents and made the purpose of her birth. She tries to kill him, but he is too powerful, and she runs out to a farm and meets a farmboy. He has a strange, mute sister and a past involving terrorism or something like that. Before long, the assassins start coming, so she must destroy them and finalize the revenge that she started in the previous two films. I recommend this. On first viewing, I hated it. On second, I loved it. Avoid the dubbed version, it is horrible. My complaints are the plot holes and her screams whenever she runs that really get quite irritating after a while. Still- 3 1/2 out of 5.

once we accept that the world we're looking at is in an alternative universe that developed along the same lines as our own, the fantasy element of this film is a little easier to bear.

unfortunately, even allowing that, the plotting is just way too heavy-handed and convoluted to be very much fun.

there are a lot of action scenes in this film - choreographed by the great Donnie yen - and for the most part they are well-done and very violent, which suits me fine; but they do have one big problem - Shaku Yumiko as Yuki - she doesn't know how to fight.

being a long sword best used held with both hands, the katana, or samurai sword, requires the body's complete and focused energy. in some styles, you swing it from the hips, in others from the back-bone; but if you have to swing it from the shoulder, you better have strong legs, because that's where the energy is really going to come from. if you swing from the shoulder alone, with no chi flowing from other parts of the body, you might as well be swinging a broom - definitely not the single lethal stroke the katana is designed to accomplish.

well, but that's what she does - she swings her katana from the shoulders. no wonder she gets banged around so much in this movie.

this can't be yen's fault, he's too well versed in traditional fighting techniques; and the other performers do fines. i think we're just stuck here with a young actress who lacks confidence. to some extent, that wouldn't even be her fault. no, it's the casting director, the producer, and the director who must take the blame for this one.

from the synopsis, i was expecting much more; instead, i got much less.

by the way, she doesn't act all that convincingly either.

I've seen the movie only recently, although it appeared in 2001. I hoped to see an entertaining movie, but let me tell you, Princess Blade is nothing compared to Azumi. The "princess" is not very talkative, as you may have noticed... She reminded me of Jean Claude Van Damme, who only stared to make his point, then beat the crap out of the opponents. During the entire movie, I waited to hear at least a confession about what she liked, why was she fighting, who did she love and trust. I waited in vain. Crappy movie. Crappy dialog. Don't watch it unless you want to be bored out of your minds! It's so bad, that in the end I was wondering how I managed not to scream in frustration 1 and a half hour. Approximately. I give a 4/10.

Judging by some of the comments in IMDB, I was expecting an action movie - perhaps a dramatic one or a stupid one or a simple one or a comicy one, but essentially an action movie.

Whatever it is that I watched, it certainly didn't feel like a movie. The story is simple and straightforward (even though the prologue tries to make it seem complicated). Take three interest groups: 1) the government 2) the rebels 3) a group of assassins.

Now subtract the first (they never appear in the movie). Then simply let one of the assassins, the princess, become a rogue on a revenge trip. Add in a rebel love-interest with a guilty conscience. And you've got the ingredients.

But they still did not manage to turn it into a story or a movie. Between some random action sequences and some odd visuals trying to be Sci-Fi on a low budget, what you're left with is a feeling of emptiness. The movie just does not feel like a movie, but a weird, incoherent, boring dream.

Avoid.

2/10