Azumi 2: Death or Love

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.

Azumi was one of the best in recent samurai movies in the last few years. This sequel, while not hitting the high points of that movie, is still a good follow-up. As Azumi and Nagara continue their hunt for the last lord, they meet up with a group of bandits, one of whom looks very familiar.....

The original had a plot that was more simple and straight forwards. Here there is actually more going on, and as a result, with a number of new characters introduced sometimes Azumi and Nagara are lost in the mix.

Having said that however, the action, while not quite as good as in the first movie, is still very impressive. But what has also been added is a bit more of an emotional, even love story with the character of Ginkaku. Loking exactly like Nachi (someone Azumi liked, possibly loved and had to kill in the first movie), it gives Azumi a possible chance of love, but as is always the case in movies like this, things never go to plan.

As in the first movie, Aya Ueto gives a strong performance in the lead role. The rest of the cast are just as good too. Shusuke Kaneko taking over the direction handles it well.

It may not be as action packed as the first, but it is a very worthy sequel.

Azumi left off on a cliffhanger, but at the same time we could have gone without seeing a sequel. This sequel is rather bad. The first one had great manga style action, this one barely has any of the cool action in the first one. Also they decide to recast all the dead actors from the first movie, and have them play a different role. It just doesn't work and creates a huge mess of a film.

The story suddenly becomes a love story, instead of an assassin story like the first one. In the first one, Azumi and her team had one simple goal, kill the men who will eventually start wars in Japan. This movie does have a cool fight scene at the end, but it is short and the way they end this movie is really underwhelming.

I guess fans should watch the sequel just to see what happens to Azumi, but after watching this movie, they should only stick with the first one.

When ı heard miss Kuriyama has won the MTV award a few years ago ı was so happy because she has some Allah given talent. But the award was surprisingly categorised "the best fight". Honestly there are better fights in films. Yes she is an awesome fighter but her character role playing is better then her fighting. She is nearly the number one evil girl character to me.

And miss Ueto had given a stunning performance in the first film displaying a strong hearted young woman. But somehow in this film she is weaker (ı mean Azumi) fight scenes are less convincing.

Overall this is a successful Japanese film to watch with family. The best of it is "love" is given without sex scenes. That makes the audience spectrum larger.

Some people might say that the first Azumi is a straight action flick which can and should be seen for its dazzling displays of sword play, but, and that's a big but, what glued the visuals together in the first installment was the characters: The little group of young assassins who went out on their mission. Azumi 2 really, really miss this little group. Our doe eyed heroine is even missing her famous smile and the reason for this - a seemingly ghost from the past - unfortunately leaves her with a facial expression, not unlike those who c's her draw her sword, but ain't quite sure if they're to die or not. That apart, Azumi 2 is worth watching: Especially if you dig the action scenes in the first one, and this time, a trio of really cool opponents has been thrown in, which kind of reminded me of the trio of deadly assassins in sword of vengeance, so if you liked them, check out Azumi 2! But, the bottom line is that Azumi 2 is missing something in order to be as good as the first one: Maybe it has been cut, and maybe some day a directors cut version will surface to set the record straight, but until then: you will love it if you're in it for the action, but if you're like me, you will only like it, cause swords are not enough!