re:mote voices

Title: Azumi
Cast:Aya Ueto, Shun Oguri, Hiroki Narimiya, Kenji Kohashi, Takatoshi Kaneko, Yuma Ishigaki, Yasuomi Sano, Shinji Suzuki
Director:Ryuhei Kitamura

Azumi is found in the deser beside her dead mother as a little girl by a samurai master. He raises her with his other students to become a mast assasin, a task at which she excells. Ready to face the world, the group head out into the world, tasked with killing a series of samurai warlords intent on starting a war. Their mission is clear, their abilities special - kill the warlords and safe lives - do not become distracted, do not let others become aware of your abilities. Unfortunately with the death of the first warlord, the second warlord becomes aware that something is going on. So while the first kill was easy, the second is going to be a lot harder, with doubts creeping in as to the purpose of their mission making things more complex.

Azumi is a mixed bag of a film, pure B-movie material, the results strike the viewer as being particularly true to the sensibilities of the manga that it is based upon. There are the kind of logic jumps that seem to crop up in manga, regularly leaving me baffled and bemused, along with the entirely over the top comic book villains and heroes. Azumi and her friends are giggling teenagers, contrasting the highly skilled and disciplined assasins we are expected to believe them to be. While the villian is part slavering psychopath, and part cross dressing, heavily made up, rose carrying swordsman that we've seen often before.

With that is perhaps isn't a surprise that the fight scenes are comic book. Lots of swinging about and jumping, rather than the careful choreography of regular martial arts film. In the same way there is something ham about the violence, while there is plenty of blood, they seem to cut people off screen, only for them to step into camera range already covered in blood. Which seems a little curious given that it has recieved the full 18 rating for its UK release on DVD - given you don't really see anything other than someone with a prepared blood back, I would have thought a 15 rating would have covered it.

There are points where the film is comedic, perhaps unintentionally - like the point where Azumi and co walk into a village under attack by bandits and are ignored, or where a ninja turns up to give them a message and leaves saying "good luck guys!". On the other hand, the "monkey faced" ninja is clearly intended to be funny, and with the way people keep insulting him and he makes dog noises when annoyed, he is kind of funny.

One thing that I did find particularly interesting was the ambiguity found in some of the characters. Azumi's reaction to her mission and that of "monkey face" to the actions of the psychopathic swordsman emphasize the grey areas that exist within the plot - giving a little more depth to the polar extremes the comic book material might display.

Silly, throw away cinema, which while watchable doesn't really live up to the potential it had - coming across as being somewhat nostalgic/dated.