Azumi 2: Death or Love (2005)

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, ... See full summary »

Director:

Shûsuke Kaneko

Writers:

Yû Koyama (manga), Mataichirô Yamamoto (screenplay) (as Rikiya Mizushima)

Stars:

Aya Ueto, Yûma Ishigaki, Chiaki Kuriyama

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Aya Ueto	...	Azumi
Yûma Ishigaki	...	Nagara
Chiaki Kuriyama	...	Kozue
Shun Oguri	...	Ginkaku / Nachi
Kazuki Kitamura	...	Kanbê Inoue
Ken'ichi Endô	...	Kinkaku
Kai Shishido	...	Hanzô
Tak Sakaguchi	...	Tsuchigumo (as Taku Sakaguchi)
Kengo	...	Roppa
Shôichirô Masumoto	...	Saburôta
Shun Itô	...	Kijimaru
Kenji Takechi	...	Kiheita
Shunta Fuchino	...	Shintarô
Eugene Nomura	...	Samurai Z (as Yûjin Nomura)
Ai Maeda	...	Chiyo

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

japan | japanese | evil man | spy | snorricam | 

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Taglines:

Love or duty... An assassin must choose.

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Genres:

Action

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

12 March 2005 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Azumi 2

Filming Locations:

Fukuyama City, Hiroshima, Japan

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$216,480 (Japan), 11 March 2005, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nippon Herald Films, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), Shogakukan

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

The amount of blood on Azumi's sword in the final fight scene changes.

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Quotes

Azumi: Why the hell is it always like this?

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Connections

Follows Azumi (2003)

User Reviews

Even better than the first

The second installment, and the final chapter of Azumi's saga picks up where the first one left off.

Monk Tenkai (Shigeru Kouyama) is still leading the ninja assassin troop to hunt down the remaining warlords of the Toyotomi clan. Azumi (Aya Ueto), and Nagara (Yuuma Ishigaki) who are the survivors from the first movie is part of Tenkai's assassins. There is a girl ninja in Tenkai's troop named Kozue (Chiaki Kurihara) who joins Azumi, and Nagara. Together they take off to assassinate Masayuki Sanada (Mikijiro Hira). On their way, they meet a group of bandits. One of them named Ginkaku (Shun Oguri) looks exactly like Azumi's first love Nachi. Kozue tells Nagara that Azumi secretly wants to defect with Ginkaku and live a peaceful life. In order to help Azumi realize her dream, Nagara suggests to go separate ways sending Azumi on a wild goose chase. Nagara, and Kozue then heads out to assassinate Masayuki Sanada. On their way, Kozue shows her true color as Masayuki's double agent. In the mean time, Masayuki decides to mount a preemptive strike on Tenkai's troops, and leaves his castle to assassinate them. Just when this seems to succeed, Azumi and the bandits shows up and defeats Masayuki's first wave of attack. Masayuki's main troop plans for another attack, this time with ninja Tsuchigumo (Taku Sakaguchi), and Kuunyo (Reiko Takashima). In the mean time, Kozue shows up at Tenkai's camp, and tells she got separated from Nagara. Then she moves to assassinate Tenkai, but is cut down by Azumi. On her way to kill Masayuki, Azumi encounters Tsuchigumo, and is nearly defeated by his steel wire attack. She survives, but now Kuunyo stands in her way. Drugged and nearly unconscious, Azumi can't fend for her life. Just when Kuunyo is about to give the finishing blow, Ginkaku shows up and stabs Kuunyo, but also gets fatally wounded by Kuunyo's lance. Azumi continues to Masayuki's camp, and Masayuki furious of Azumi killing Kuunyo, and his other henchmen, moves to a duel with Azumi.

Unlike the first Azumi which was mostly based on Kill Bill like action, this version is more poetic, and story driven. There's sadness to the whole story, and makes you wonder how Azumi's life will be like in the future. Ironically, director Shunsuke Kaneko who was a big fan of Kill Bill Vol 1 hired actress Chiaki Kuriyama who played Go Go in Kill Bill to play the role of Kozue on this film. Aya Ueto is more mature and pretty as ever. This is one lady who best of Hollywood beauties will have hard time competing with, and she can act to boot.

Bitter sweet saga that begs for a sequel, but probably wouldn't happen due to Aya Ueto's current age.