Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a Japanese action film from 2003. That movie is "Azumi".
Now, I honestly don't really know a whole lot about this movie, other than a couple of things. For starters, this movie is apparently a live action adaptation of a manga series with the same name. Now I obviously have never read it. But then again, upon doing the small amount of research for this movie, I just found out about that information. And, much like I've done with many other adaptation films for this series, I am not even gonna bother comparing to it's manga counterpart. I really only care if it can stand or fall on it's own standards.
Now, one other thing that I discovered about this movie is what I read on the back of the DVD case. Not so much about the plot or anything, but a caption that I found on the very top of it. It says that this movie is from the director of "Versus" and also the producer for "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust". Now while I haven't seen "Versus" yet, I *have* seen "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust". And for those of you who might already know, I love that movie. So, there is a chance here that this movie could be really great.
That said, I'm not totally sure what to expect from this movie. Like I said, I'm hoping for it to be really good, but then again, it could also find a way to really suck. I'm hoping that it doesn't suck, but still, it could be a possibility. But there's really only one way for me to find out. And the only way I'm gonna find out for myself is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Azumi".
18 minutes later
You know, guys, it's kinda messed up to know that this old guy raised these kids up to become would-be assassins, just so he can order them to kill each other in order to prove that they can succeed in their mission. I sorta get the method behind his reasoning, but it *is* still kinda fucked up to go through with this sort of ordeal, you know what I mean?
2 minutes later
So, not only did half of these kids get killed off, but they also burned their entire home down before leaving. OK, I said that I sorta understood the master's methods behind his students killing each other, but why burn your house down afterwards? I know he said that they were going to leave the mountain, but why go to the effort of burning down your entire home? It just seems kinda stupid to me, but hey, who am I to judge the master's way of thinking?
9 minutes later
OK, guys, I just learned something new today. If you throw a big enough rock into a river of water, you'll be able to catch a lot of fish by having them splash out of the water all at once. I'm not totally sure how practical that is among fishing, but at least it's sort of an interesting method, to say the least.
15 minutes later
So, the warlord that our heroes assassinated was actually a fucking body double? That is sorta cool to know, but what I'm curious about now is how exactly did they go to the effort of getting that body double? Did they just find somebody who mostly resembled what the warlord looked like, or was it just something like one of those ninjitsu abilities where they make some sort of substitute doll in his place? I understand it's kind of a trivial point and all, but it is something that I'm a little curious about.
17 minutes later
OK, that's certainly weird. I wouldn't expect one of these bandits to say "give me a second" before suddenly collapsing after getting stabbed to death. Kinda funny, but still rather odd to me, you know what I mean?
19 minutes later
You know, guys, this fight scene here is pretty cool and everything. And I would probably like this fight scene more if the background of the sky didn't keep changing from between night and day. It's becoming a little bit distracting here, which is a shame because, like I said, this fight scene is really well done. I just wish I could focus on that more than the changing of the sky between shots here, you know?
20 minutes later
Sorry if I'm not saying a whole lot here, guys, I'm kinda getting immersed myself into the story here. It's been rather good so far, minus a couple of hiccups here and there, which I'll talk about more when I get into the review for this thing.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Azumi". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...all right. So, where do I begin here? Well, as I kinda already mentioned earlier, I said that the movie was rather good as I began immersing myself into this movie's story. And for the most part, I really enjoyed this thing. Mind you, the film does have a couple of problems here and there, but I still rather liked it overall.
So with that said, let's get into the review proper here by first discussing the writing. Now, earlier this year, I reviewed a couple of martial arts films known as "Moonlight Sword and Jade Lion" and "The Bloody Fists". And the reason why I'm bringing them up is because this movie is kinda sorta similar to those movies, in which it's trying to tell some kind of compelling story while also blending in it's action scenes as well. But the difference between this movie and those two films is that the latter two failed to get out some kind of story that made little to no sense whatsoever. Now, I can't be entirely too harsh on those movies because, like I mentioned in both of those reviews, it's possible that there might've been some sort of an issue with the translation of dubbing those movies into English. But still, my point is that, with what was given to us in those movies, neither one of them were successful in telling any sort of story that tried to be interesting or entertaining, aside from their fight choreography being really solid.
Which then brings me to "Azumi". Now, while the movie doesn't necessarily have a lot of over-the-top action scenes, I will say that the story here is solid enough to where you could follow it while also being immersed into the action scenes as well. A lot of it is just a bunch of sword fighting, but it is still really cool to see, as you watch our main characters go up against ninjas, samurais, and bandits along the way. I guess I'm probably jumping ahead here a bit by talking about the fight choreography rather than the story here, but again, I am gonna say that the fight choreography is rather solid. And I guess since I've already jumped ahead here, I'm also gonna say that the special effects are pretty good for the most part. There's a lot of blood pouring in this movie from all of the kills here, and most of it is great. There are also a couple of instances of CG, such fire, explosions, and a couple of blood effects here and there. And while some of that looked a little cheap, the practical effects definitely more than make up of what little CG is used here. And the costuming here is really good, too, as it fits that style of very early Japan. So, there is that.
But I should probably go back to the writing, since I sorta skipped ahead a bit there. The story is essentially a coming of age for Azumi. Where she gets taken in by her master as a little girl after she loses her mother in, admittedly, a very vague way. She then gets raised up with her adopted brothers as they are all equally trained under their master, who all eventually grow up to become trained assassins. And their mission is given to them from their master, who says that they must kill the warlords who are trying to start up a war that may possibly happen soon. And it's from here where we get a little more insight of Azumi's character, where she starts to question stuff like whether or not the people they are killing are actually bad people. Or when one of their comrades is slowly dying from a poisoning, she's wondering why if it's OK to senselessly kill warlords but not to save the life of someone who's on the verge of dying. Now granted, the dying assassin kinda hid that fact from his master, probably because he didn't want them to worry. But still, it does change Azumi's character a bit after she shortly leaves the group, along with another one of the brothers named Hyuga.
And it's here where I can say that our characters here are very well developed. Mind you, not all of the assassin brothers don't get that much development, unlike Azumi. The only exception to this is the one I just mentioned by name, Hyuga. He actually ends up falling for a girl named Yai, who is a traveling performer, and also joins Azumi for a little bit. She actually ends up playing a bit of a role too, where she tries to teach Azumi to speak and act like more like a girl. She also attempts Azumi to retire the sword as well, though that ends up getting cut short when they get ambushed by bandits after one of them is attempting to rape Yai. So, on a character growth level, Azumi is easily the best developed. You have a reason to care about her as she goes along her journey of what she must do and where she ends up as an assassin. And it's really good stuff here.
Now like I said earlier, the film does have a couple of problems, minus some of the dated CG and all. First of all, the main villain is kind of a weak character, as he's mostly just an androgynous, cartoonish villain. At least, that's the kind of vibe I got out of him anyway. Secondly, the pacing is a little bit on the slow side. The movie is roughly about 2 hours long, and there were a couple of moments near the end where it could've actually ended, but still kept on going. But I still think it's worth the 2 hours of it's runtime. There is one other issue that I'll get into a little bit later on, but I will say that the film does try to inject some humor into itself, while trying to space out the dramatic scenes that happen quite a bit in this movie. Granted, this film is ultimately more of a drama, but there is enough of a breathing space to where the movie isn't totally drowned by it's dramatic moments.
So overall, guys, the writing here is really good for the most part, and I would say it's one of the better action films I've seen from an Asian country in quite a while. And as for the acting, well, I have to go by off the English dub that I opted to watch. And I will say that the dub here, at least on a voice acting level, is pretty good, but there is something that I noticed which could be more of a distracting issue. Now it may just be me that noticed this, but for some reason, some of the dialogue is about a second late whenever a character is about to talk or finished talking. I noticed this, because it happened pretty early on in the film, and it's quite noticeable throughout a good portion of the movie. Now mind you, it doesn't ultimately ruin it, but it could potentially distract you, especially if you're someone who watches English dubs. Now with that said, there is an option to where you could watch it with the Japanese audio with English subtitles. So if you're not a fan of dubs, the option to switch it over to the subtitles is there. But overall, guys, the acting here is pretty decent for what it is, despite some minor syncing issues.
I need to talk about editing for a moment. Now I talked about this way early on, but it bears repeating. There's a fight scene that goes on in this movie between two guys, and it's honestly a pretty decent fight, too. However, the biggest downside to all this is the time of day that they're suppose to be fighting in. See, before the fight happens, there's a scene that takes place during the night. But as soon as the fight starts up, you'll get to see them clashing swords while the sky changes from between night and day. Now this would've sorta made sense *if* they were fighting for days upon end for some stupid reason. But no, it was really just a case of poor editing, because you'll get to see glimpses of a grey sky in some shots, along with some shots of the sunlight, and then nightfall. And all of this is mixed together really poorly, because none of it was consistent. Not only that, but also with the grey sky that shows up when they're fighting, I couldn't tell you if it was taking place while the sun was going up or if it was going down. I don't know, but it was a rather distracting moment of the film that you'll definitely notice for yourself, especially if you end up looking for it like I did.
But otherwise, guys, camerawork here is pretty good. Though admittedly, there is one shot of the movie during the final fight, where we get to see the camera go around the two actors in a vertical fashion, and while the shot looked cool at first, it is a bit disorienting, too. So just be wary of that shot when it happens. Lighting here is lit really well, as most of the entire movie was shot outdoors. Sound-mix here is really good, and the score is also really good, too. So, technically speaking, the movie here looks and sounds great.
Ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Azumi"? Oh yes, certainly, guys. It is a really solid movie. I, myself, wasn't totally sure if I would like it or not, but it wound up almost kinda surprising me a bit. If you, yourself, are a fan of action movies featuring ninjas and whatnot, then you'll most definitely find something to like here. Now I should also mention that this movie apparently has a sequel as well, and I may actually try to track down the sequel somewhere and cover it for this series. But as for this film, well, like I already said, I can definitely recommend this movie to you guys. And if you're someone that's only seen action movies made in the U.S., and you want to see something a little bit different outside of it, then this movie is certainly worth checking out, if at least once. And as for me, well, I did like it enough to hold onto my DVD collection, so I'll probably watch it again at some point. For now, though, I'm gonna go and watch something else. And you know what? It's been almost a year, but I kinda want to go and rewatch my copy of "The Great Yokai War" again. I want to see if that movie still holds up, seeing as how it's almost been a year since I covered it. So yeah, that's what I'm gonna go do next once I get done uploading this review.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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