AZUMI

Reviewed by Marcio Guastavino
June 19, 2006

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura Studio: Urban Vision, Asia Vision MPAA: NR (contains blood, mature language and violence) Website: Click Here Review Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Aya Ueto as Azumi. Courtesy Asia Vision.

One of the many exclusives at this year's Anime Expo was the screening of the movie AZUMI , by director Ryuhei Kitamura. The movie is about a young girl named Azumi (Aya Ueto) who is found near her mother's corpse by a master swordsman. The swordsman has the task of training orphans to become deadly assassins to do the government's bidding. The master allows Azumi to train with the other orphans and in a decade's time a group of assassins is created with her as one of the trained soldiers. Azumi, being quick and fearless, is one of the deadliest amongst them. They are given the mission to kill two warlords who are bent on starting a war. With that story in mind, the movie progresses into a world of cruelty, death, and hatred. With well choreographed martial art sequences and explosions, this movie can be one of the great action flicks of the summer.

A great action movie cannot exist without some light-hearted comedy. As dark as the movie is, there were some slapstick scenes that left me laughing at the orphans and their antics. A lot of these antics reminded me of the early Jackie Chan and Samo Hung flicks. The movie I saw was in subtitles, but for those of you who don't like the reading the DVD comes out on November 7 th with 5.1 Japanese audio tracks with optional English subtitles including a brand new 5.1 English audio track. It comes completely dubbed for the fans.

Those of you who want to catch the movie in theatres should check out the website and locations where the movie will be shown. I gave AZUMI a High evolution factor due to the fact that the director and screenwriter had put some of the best attention to character detail I've seen in a long time. The development of who the main characters are and where the fit in this world of cruelty pulls you into the story. The movie is full of suspense and drama that anyone would enjoy and a great cast of characters that really give this movie a sense of realism. Ryhuei Kitamura is popular for his great films and I believe AZUMI is one of the best! Go catch another screening if you can!

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