Azumi (2003)

Studio: Urban Vision Release Date: 11/28/2006 Product Description

Aspect Ratio?

Is this title really presented in 1:33 to 1 ratio? The previews I see on line are widescreen. Thanks December 28, 2008

...sorry to break up this romantic scene but I want you to die.

This movie was great!! Awesome & beautifully shot action period picture that's along the lines of hero or house of flying daggers. It's just as visually arresting too. I totally dig the stereotypical comic book dialogue. Loved every moment. A+++ December 21, 2008

Horrible!!!!!!

i gave it two stars cuz azumi herself is so damn hot i watched the whole thing because of her. no other reason really. so that in itself deserves two stars. the swordplay is really bad, which is bad for me cuz i was hoping to see excellent swordplay. total opposite. my little sisters enjoyed this movie alot though.... December 2, 2008

An Underrated Movie Well Worth Checking Out

This is one of the few Samurai/Ninja action movies that has both an interesting storyline and great action battle scenes. The story itself is in the era when Japan was in civil war between which clan would rule Japan, thus you have one former Samurai general who serves one of the faction clans and is ordered to create a group of assassins who would be raised from childhood to destroy the rival faction clan and bring peace to all of Japan. The General raises ten children all boys except one a girl by the name of Azumi in isolation teaching them the way of the ninja and training them in swordsmanship and after reaching their adulthood they are giving their orders to return to civilization in begin their primary orders. But first to test his students resolve he tells them to team up with their best friend in pairs of two and than if they are truly ready to begin their quest they must first kill their teammate, the students sadly and with great anguish comply with this order until there are only five students left which after burying their comrades begin their trek onward. After Azumi carries out her first assassination with one of the lords she begins to question their orders as she sees that the rival lords aren't truly villains or warmongers as she and the other children were lead to believe. The movie is great especially when you see the heart-aching scene when the friends carry out their teachers orders to kill each other, while of course most people would say they would never do that you have to realize that these were children raised almost all their lives to believe in their teachers edicts and steel rules about right and wrong good and evil and so ultimately felt they had to carry out this horrendous order as well. I also like how they put a touch of humanism in the scene with Azumi's first assassination with the rival feudal lord it showed that he was just a normal human who wasn't an ogre or truly evil man but just a person on the opposite side of Azumi's beliefs. The picture for this dvd is wide-screen and the picture is clear and sharp so no problems with video quality, and of course you get the optional dubbed or subbed audio but with most dubbed the quality is at most 50/50 so with most people I say watch it dubbed for the best entertainment viewing. The action and blood are plentiful here so this of course is not meant for children but if you like sword swinging battles and your pound of violence this movie is a great choice for you. November 18, 2008

A disgrace to the samurai film tradition

There have been some very good samurai films lately: Hidden Blade, Twilight Samurai, When the Last Blade is Drawn. This is not one of them.The 'acting', especially from Azumi herself, is risible. The plot ludicrous. The fight scenes are amateurish. The CGI is inept. Anyone who thinks that this is a good samurai film should be compelled to sit down and watch some of the masterpieces of the genre: Sword of Doom, Tenchu, Sanjuro, Goyokin, Hara-Kiri. And then you can judge this one. It's so bad, it's embarrassing. Alain Silver, in his wonderful book Samurai Film, calls Azuma 'vacuous'. And so must anyone be who finds this rubbish worth watching. September 20, 2008

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