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Azumi mixes stunning beauty, kill thrill
By Joe Nguyen
nguyejos@mscd.edu

Courtesy of Urban Vision Azumi Not rated 128 minutes Opens Aug. 18

What’s a girl to do after her mother dies and she is left with no option but to live with a band of orphans?

Grow up healthy? Check.

Learn to use a sword? Check.

Kill everything? Check.

“There are many evil people in the world,” says Azumi, played by Aya Ueto. “Someone has to kill them.”

Director Ryuhei Kitamura’s Azumi, based on Yu Koyama’s manga, follows the story of a band of orphans who are raised by an aging samurai for one purpose: to become an elite assassin team and rid Japan of all future wars. This visually stunning, action-packed feature is 128 minutes of blood-filled fun.

The movie closely resembles a Japanese animated film. The bad guys are profoundly evil, and there’s a distinct difference between the physics of normal people and those of heroes. Normal people abide by the same rules as those of us in the real world. Heroes fly, possess superhuman strength and have a surprisingly high tolerance to pain.

The film is loaded with a vast array of colors overlapping the lush scenery. The rich hues create a stark contrast to the dark nature of the film. It’s a little difficult to feel affected by gruesome violence when everyone is wearing vivid clothing.

The strength of the film lies in its fight scenes. Elaborate sword battles involve dozens of combatants. As in many Japanese swordplay movies, there is an absurd amount of blood that spouts out of the victims. Think of the Kill Bill sequence in which Uma Thurman plows through the Crazy 88 gang, but with fewer limbs lopped off.

At times, the cinematography becomes difficult to watch. Distant wide angles are overused and often don’t fit in with the scene. Elsewhere it’s as if the camera is stalking the actors as they’re saying their lines.

In the final fight scene, the camera orbits around the fighters, turning the scene in every direction. It may be interesting artistically, but from the audience’s perspective, it’s nothing more than a confusing and disorienting mess.

Despite this artistic faux pas, the final battle sequence is one of the coolest scenes in recent memory, with a port packed full of warriors armed to the teeth battling a teenage girl brandishing a sword. It’s like a live-action version of Dynasty Warriors as she slices and dices through the seemingly endless waves of bodies.

Azumi fits the pattern of a fun summer flick filled with mindless action, but it’s really much more. The intense fighting and eye candy may be the film’s initial draw, but it’s the orphans’ journey that gives the film its heart.

Their departure from the comfort and safety of their mountain home is a universal coming-of-age story. No longer are they children playing a game; they are now adults having to face the real world.