Being a teenager in Japan has got to suck. After sending an entire classroom to their deaths in Battle Royale, the kids are in for another going over in Azumi, this time as either ninja masters or sabre fodder civilians, but either way, the majority of them are destined for nothing more than a hastily assembled grave in the countryside with a Samurai sword as a headstone. Hell, the kindergarten gang-bangers in City of God had a higher life expectancy than this...If you can say one thing about the juveniles in Azumi though it's this: they certainly kick a lot more ass than their Hollywood counterparts who do nothing but go to proms, flash award winning smiles and have names like 'Ryan.'
Set in an unspecified moment in Japanese history, the story revolves around a group of youngsters who have been raised in seclusion in the mountains by a wise, battle scarred and really rather cruel old Samurai, instructed by his master to train them to be assassins. When we first join them, Azumi seems like a rather sweet and unassuming film, the characters happily gallivanting round the hills, laughing and joking together against a picturesque and beautifully colourful backdrop. Two hours later though and you'll have witnessed an almighty slaughter-fest with a body count well into double figures, the kids' adventures in the outside world resulting in all sorts of deliriously violent exchanges.
Whether not you'll enjoy Azumi therefore has much to do with how much on screen violence you can tolerate. Swords hack into bodies left, right and centre and it could only get more vicious if they had somehow devised a way to get the DVD to squirt blood out of the speakers, subtle this definitely is not. Bar the incredibly sad introduction though, the majority is so outlandish it more closely resembles a Tom & Jerry cartoon than a serious study of a martial art. At the centre of it all is Azumi herself, a petite and pretty young girl. Loved by the camera and disarmingly sweet and innocent, she's the sort of girl you'd want to take home to your parents, provided you could trust her not to slice their arms off at the slightest social faux pas.
All of which results in a deliriously fun movie provided you're in the right frame of mind. The fights get somewhat repetitive after a while, but provided your brain is switched off it is still an enjoyable if somewhat melodramatic romp through feudal Japan. Even with cerebral cortex non-functioning however, you still have to wonder how a young girl, brought up in isolation with nine boys has managed to avoid falling pregnant several times over by the time she reaches her seventeenth birthday...
Set in an unspecified moment in Japanese history, the story revolves around a group of youngsters who have been raised in seclusion in the mountains by a wise, battle scarred and really rather cruel old Samurai, instructed by his master to train them to be assassins. When we first join them, Azumi seems like a rather sweet and unassuming film, the characters happily gallivanting round the hills, laughing and joking together against a picturesque and beautifully colourful backdrop. Two hours later though and you'll have witnessed an almighty slaughter-fest with a body count well into double figures, the kids' adventures in the outside world resulting in all sorts of deliriously violent exchanges.
Whether not you'll enjoy Azumi therefore has much to do with how much on screen violence you can tolerate. Swords hack into bodies left, right and centre and it could only get more vicious if they had somehow devised a way to get the DVD to squirt blood out of the speakers, subtle this definitely is not. Bar the incredibly sad introduction though, the majority is so outlandish it more closely resembles a Tom & Jerry cartoon than a serious study of a martial art. At the centre of it all is Azumi herself, a petite and pretty young girl. Loved by the camera and disarmingly sweet and innocent, she's the sort of girl you'd want to take home to your parents, provided you could trust her not to slice their arms off at the slightest social faux pas.
All of which results in a deliriously fun movie provided you're in the right frame of mind. The fights get somewhat repetitive after a while, but provided your brain is switched off it is still an enjoyable if somewhat melodramatic romp through feudal Japan. Even with cerebral cortex non-functioning however, you still have to wonder how a young girl, brought up in isolation with nine boys has managed to avoid falling pregnant several times over by the time she reaches her seventeenth birthday...