Was it as good for you as it was for Odagiri Joe?

[meganbmoore]

So, it took me a while, but I realized that the dramatic and white clad assassin with a rose fetish was Odagiri Joe.  In my defense, he isn't very recognizable, aside from the chin.

Anyway, aside from one near-massive misstep about 2/3 through, Azumi is a pretty solid bit of martial arts cheese.  It's well shot and has pretty good fight sequences, and I think it tries to be somewhat gender blind regarding Azumi's skills through most of the movie.  Except for near the end, she's not put forth as a Sooper Speshul Warrior Woman, or portrayed as being weaker than her male comrades.  In addition, the only allowances to gender in her upbringing seems to be that she slept apart from the guys.

They do, however, introduce a plot arc later in the movie where another girl falls in love with asks Azumi to go with her to her home town, and tries to turn Azumi into a more traditional female, only to have Azumi return to her roots when they're attacked and almost raped.  I'm not sure if their message there was that Azumi couldn't be a "normal" woman because it meant weakness and being a victim, or if they were saying that Azumi just couldn't live a normal life.  I don't know if they knew.  But the other girl completely gave her the "I will always wait for you and when you finish what you must do and want peace, remember that i'll still be waiting for you" speech.

ON TO THE CRACK!

To compensate (maybe?) for the f/f, Rose Assassin wanders into a town and a man asks him how much for his back parts while grabbing his front parts.  Rose Assassin's response is to put his trademark rose in the guy's mouth, hack off the offending arm, and then hire the whole town to be his cannon fodder minions.

Later, one of Azumi's friends has one of those epic, 10+ minute death scenes where he's getting skewered left and right and taking down 20-30 opponents as he goes.  At the end, he collapses at Rose Assassin's feet and Rose Assassin peers curiously at him for a while, tosses the rose on his chest, then walks off in a huff because he's still bored, so his men can skewer the guy some more.  Rose Assassin is such a drama queen.

He made sure we noticed that at the end by jumping and hooting and exclaiming over how wonderful it was when Azumi was cutting down his men, because there were interesting things going on.  His death scene consists of his spinning and cackling and then his head flying off.  Azumi was very unimpressed by his very dramatic death, though.

ALSO!!! 

The final scene was a very bad post-final scene scene that was clearly tacked on for a sequel.  I laugh at its badness.

I have Azumi 2 somewhere.  Possibly, I will dig it out and watch it tomorrow for the lolz.  I hope it is as entertaining as the first.  I also understand it has Oguri Shun.

Comments

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Oguri Shun was in both Azumi movies ... in the first one he plays Nachi, Azumi's love interest in the first third of the movie and in the second he is Ginkaku.
Eita was in Azumi 1 and Dororo :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

More like the first 6th of the movie, actually. Eita's role was so small that I wasn't even 100% positive it was him. Actually, I think all the young assassins were (now) decently known jdrama actors.

[surgingshark.livejournal.com]

I take it you've never read my Azumi review (http://surgingshark.vox.com/library/post/movie-review-azumi.html) =P

I have Azumi 2 somewhere as well...

[cheesemon.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I hated Azumi, although I remember liking Odagiri Joe's character. Aya just didn't strike me as a warrior type and I thought they should've casted a tougher looking actress with more acting experience. For heroines wielding katanas, I thought Kill Bill was far better. :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it for the cheese and drama factor, not for anything silly like quality.

Ueto Aya really is too cute and adorable for the role, though. Not that she's a bad actress, but you more want to pack her up and take her away from the badnes than cheer her on while she fights.