Azumi 2: Death or Love (2005)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Shusuke Kaneko

Writers:

Yu Koyama (comic)
Mataichiro Yamamoto (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

12 March 2005 (Japan)

Genre:

Action

Plot:

Young assassins Azumi and Nagara continue their mission to prevent a civil war. In their hunt for Masayuki Sanada, who is protected by both an army and a dangerous clan, they meet Ginkaku, a person who shows a remarking resemblance with former friend Nachi. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Comic | Martial Arts | Spy | Sequel | Blood

Cast

Aya Ueto	...	Azumi
Yuma Ishigaki	...	Nagara
Chiaki Kuriyama	...	Kozue
Shun Oguri	...	Ginkaku
Kenichi Endo	...	Kinkaku (as Kenichi Endou)
Kai Shishido	...	Hanzou
Eugene Nomura	...	Samurai Z
Tak Sakaguchi	...	Tsuchi-gumo
Shôichirô Masumoto	...	Saburouta
Kenji Takechi	...	Kiheita
Ai Maeda	...	Chiyo
Toshie Negishi	...	Yone
Toshiya Nagasawa	...	Sanada
Shigeru Kôyama	...	Nankou-bou Tenkai
Kazuki Kitamura	...	Kanbei Inoue

Also Known As:

Azumi 2 (Japan) (short title)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

UK:18 | Australia:MA | Argentina:13 | USA:NC-17 | South Korea:18 | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:M18 | Japan:PG-12

Filming Locations:

Fukuyama City, Hiroshima, Japan

Company:

Nippon Herald Films

Goofs:

Continuity: Azumi's hair color changes through out the movie from red to brown and brown to red.

Quotes:

Nankou-bou Tenkai: You won't come out alive, you know.
Azumi: The old man ordered the ten of us to kill each other. He told us to be true assassins with a heart of steel. We've obeyed his order and even killed our own comrades. We don't expect to stay alive.

Movie Connections:

Follows Azumi (2003)

A soulless commercial product that will disappoint you

I loved the first Azumi movie; it had lots of action, lots of story, and lots of symbolism. Azumi ended up as a cool avenging angel with the Herculean task of ending all war - and she had the charisma and determination to make the viewer believe that she might actually succeed! It was an epic samurai youth fantasy movie that worked on many levels - possibly the best Japanese movie I've seen. I rated it 9 out of 10.

Of course, I looked enormously forward to the sequel...

It started out well enough, as a direct continuation of the first movie. However, as it went on, very little happened, and it was marred by long scenes with virtually no content. There was some action, but the movie was primarily made up of ridiculous, nonsensical angst and meaningless emoting. The movie progressed insufferably slowly, had none of the intensity and subtext of the original, and you had just about zero feeling for the characters.

This commercial misfire represents a huge blown opportunity; they could have done something cool, but did something totally bland and soulless. This is a movie that deserves a 4 rating, but I will give it a 5 because it associates to the first, the two movies together forming a franchise of a new type which will hopefully be eagerly emulated and improved by other filmmakers, whether Japanese or Western.