My review of 'Azumi'

Source: http://freewebs.com/mhazumi

I hope you enjoy it!

AZUMI (2003)
(Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura)

"Typical Kitamura, but in a good way."- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: A group of assassins hunt down feudal warlords who threaten to throw Japan back into another major war.

Review:

“Azumi” doesn’t just represent all that is Ryuhei Kitamura, it represents all of Ryuhei Kitamura in a positive way. I’ve explained this many times before, but Kitamura is like the Wes Craven of Japan. His movies are packed with many ideas, often too many ideas. The ideas don’t always gel with each other, as is usually the case with these types of movies. This often means that the pacing is bloated and the tone is inconsistent, culminating in a film like “Godzilla: Final Wars” (or in Craven’s case, “My Soul To Take”), where everything works against everything else. But what Kitamura has that Wes lacks is his love of going over-the-top. Characters strike ridiculous (anime-ish) poses to look cool, the drama is heavy handed to the point where he will have it rain in the midst of a sad scene and characters overact like mad crazy for the sake of......actually, I don't know why they overact. They just do. It tends to either make the proceedings badass or stupid, but with “Azumi”, it was more badass……But a little stupid, too.

The film takes place in a stylized Feudal Japan, feeling very much like a manga setting, probably because it was based off a manga. Azumi (Aya Ueto) is part of a group of assassins in training, who live deep in the mountains and have one purpose: To assassinate Warlords who threaten to send the world into chaos once again. However, she soon learns that the world isn’t as cut and dry as she thought. She and her comrades find themselves thrust into one bad situation after the next and they soon find themselves struggling to retain their humanity as they become more and more ruthless.

The first thing that one notices about “Azumi” is its gorgeous cinematography. The mountains are vast, the forests are green…….so……very green….There are plenty of wide shots, so that one has no difficulty telling that this is an epic. We also take notice that the fight scenes are pretty good too. They are all ‘weapon’ fight scenes, almost always involving swords. They’re fast, bloody and well choreographed, although they aren’t perfect. Some of the fighters don’t look like authentic warriors and their posturing is questionable. But Kitamura doesn’t just rely on good fight choreography anyway. He speeds up the camera (and slows it down) in order to create a super-human element to the battles. There is an absurd amount of gore, which makes the movie even more....anime-ish, for lack of a better word.

When I say ‘anime-ish’, I mean ‘anime-ish’. The attire everyone wears is exaggerated, especially with Azumi and her short skirt. Their hair is even more exaggerated. One guy even looks like a monkey. The thing with anime is that it is by nature, over the top. Everyone acts extreme, dresses extreme, fights extreme and IS extreme. The main villain in this picture is so insanely over-the-top that I imagine he alone might drive some people away. This means that there is something largely artificial about the film, which can either appeal to you or not. I personally saw this movie as similar to “Shinobi: Heart Under Blade” in style, but it’s an improvement because it had a stronger pace and is slightly more grounded in reality. I could actually look at some of the characters and not burst out laughing. While there is a cross-dresser, he's nowhere near as silly looking as that gay-Sephiroth looking douchebag in that film.

Other aspects of the film will either work on you or not, namely Ryuhei Kitamura's extreme attempts at being dramatic. The drama here strongly resembled a soap opera and the music only made it more mawkish. To Kitamura's credit, at least he decided to add substance to the film with the drama, but Kitamura has always had some substance om jos films. ("Sky High"....no, not the one you're thinking of, has plenty of heartbreaking moments). But there is a point late in the movie where the drama becomes overbearing to the point where it starts becoming funnier than the films actual attempts at comedy. Kitamura will also have superfluous touches of style for no reason, which can be cool, but also can be distracting. In other words, this is a typical issue with Kitamura's style. You either like it or you don't, but at least "Azumi" is more restrained than his crazier films ("Versus").

There are more severe problems, including one glaring scene where Azumi jumps out of water completely dry. But my main complaint had to do with the characters in general. Aside from Azumi and her Sensei (maybe), no one felt adequately developed and I couldn’t tell the difference between most of them. The villains were significantly more interesting, but most of them are swiftly dispatched in stupid ways which is shocking considering how some of them were hyped up. WHY IN THE HELL DOES KITAMURA KEEP WASTING TAK SAKAGUCHI?! It drives me insane. Only ONE villain got a worthy death, the others are killed off so stupidly that you find yourself wondering if Kitamura just got sick of the other villains and didn’t want them in the movie anymore.

“Azumi” is a fast paced, bloody samurai/ninja film that is certainly style-over-substance, but there is some substance there as well. It is a pretty solid example of what an anime-turned-live action movie could be if done right, and it is one movie where Kitamura’s preferences tend to work for it than against it. It’s either incredibly cool or incredibly silly, but I tended to like it. Sometimes, there is nothing better than a colorful epic with slick, gory battles even if the movie itself is kind of flawed.

Violence: Rated R worthy. It’s pretty violent!

Nudity: Two attempted rapes, but nothing explicit. Although was it just me, or were there lesbian implications between Azumi and that other girl? Probably just me.

Overall: “Azumi” is a good samurai/ninja epic. It's not great, but it's certainly good at being good.

3/4 Stars


my reviews of martial arts and horror films
http://freewebs.com/martialhorror