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AZUMI (Japanese)

 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Action/Fantasy
Starring: Aya Ueto, Joe Ddagiri, Aya Okamoto, Kenji Kohashi, Hiroki Narimiya, Takatoshi Iwashiro

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Rating: M18 (Violence)
Year Made: 2004

 


SPECIAL FEATURES

- Promotion Clips
- Fighting on the Edge: The Making of Azumi
- 'Battle on the Wildside' Featurette
- Azumi 2 Death or Love Press Kit
- The Making of Azumi 2

 

 


TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: Japanese
Subtitles: English & Chinese
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen
Sound: Dolby Digital
Running Time: 2 hrs 8 mins
Region Code: 3
Distributor: Blue Max

 


SYNOPSIS:

Don't be fooled by the ultra low-cut skirt, knee-high boots and flowing black cape. Behind the angelic facade and streaming locks, gleams a sword-killing machine who doesn't think twice before setting on a bloody rampage. Sequestered at a young age on a remote island, Azumi and nine other children have grown into robust teenagers having perfected the fine art of the Japanese sword. However, before sending then out into the world to perform the task they had trained so long for, their master has one final test: they must kill each other. Shocked yet unable to disobey direct orders, Azumi and her friends brandish their swords at each other. Through the character of Azumi, Kitamura offers a portrait of a complex and deeply wounded young girl torn between what she's been taught and what she truly believes. Will she follow her heart and hang up her sword or will she remain the ruthless assassin she had been trained to become?

DISC ONE: MOVIE REVIEW

The Blue Max’s release of Azumi comes in 2 dvds set. The first one contains the movie and the second one is packed with the extras.

The story of Azumi is set in the turbulent times of a feuding Japan, where ambitious warlords caused numerous battles and bloodshed in the nation. In order to bring peace back to the people, an old samurai, Master Gessai, was tasked to train a group of assassins to eliminate those warlords who seek to pursue power through battles and the lives of many others.



Young Azumi (Aya Ueto) and her group of friends spend their lives training for this mission and were raised with the belief that only in completion of their mission will they be able to bring peace to their nation.

Just before they can start their actual mission, Master Gessai gives them a final test that would reveal their determination to accomplish this task: to kill the buddy that they are closest to. Only those who survived the final test were allowed to proceed on with mission.

As the mission begins, Azumi starts to question the moral of this mission. As her faith starts to shake, more obstacles arise and soon, her remaining friends and mentor are all in dire need of help, help that perhaps only Azumi could provide.



It’s not difficult to see why this film is so popular with fans of Japanese anime and manga. It has kinetic furious sword fights that are performed by the cast, Aya Ueto included. Azumi is filled with memorable villains such as the wildly wicked Bijomaru, a monkey hairdo ninja with a doglike growl and other colorful characters that are often found in the animated world of anime. However the characterization wasn’t the strongest aspect of the film and many of the characters ended up as one-dimensional characters.

Nevertheless, Aya Ueto aced in her role as Azumi, bringing a range of vulnerability and toughness to her character. With her good looks, a decent story and fabulous sword fights, Azumi is an entertaining slash and dice flick that worth checking out.



AUDIO/VISUAL:

Bluemax’s Azumi is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen and comes with switchable English and Chinese subtitles. The audio aspect might upset some home theatre hobbyist. The 2 channels setup will disappoint those who are used to the 5.1 or DTS sound system setup. As there were plenty of swords clashing and even thunderous explosion towards the finale, a 5.1 or DTS options would greatly enhances the viewing pleasure. However the rest that just rely on their inbuilt TV speaker should not have any problems with the setup that this Dvd presents.



Another interesting aspect of this Dvd was the intermittent appearance of Bluemax Logo during the movie. This is a translucent minor distraction that lasted less than half a minute and appeared at least 4 or 5 times during the movie.

DISC TWO: SPECIAL FEATURES



If you enjoyed the movie, this second disc contains interesting information about the Azumi movie production, allowing viewers to learn even more about the effort behind Azumi.

Battle on the Wildside


The first “making of” segment contains the pre production, the process and postproduction of Azumi. It covers interview with the author, the producer, the director and the cast on their views of this movie.

The most interesting bit of this documentary would be the friendly bantering and bickering between the director Ryuhei Kitamura and producer Mataichiro Yamamoto. From their near clash during the first meeting to how they agued about the editing of the film, it’s a surprise to all that they even managed to complete this movie without either one of them walking away from the production.

It was followed by interviews with the young actors that played the group of assassins, including the difficult training that this group underwent in order to perform most of the stunts in this movie. They also spoke of the characters they played and the most memorable and emotional scenes for their characters.

Fighting on the edge

The second segment of “the making of” took place mainly during the actual film set. Although there was some overlapping of points that were pointed out in the first segment, this segment should not be missed as it does add some new point of views on the making of Azumi segment.

One of the highlight here would be the interview with the actor that played Bijomaru (Joe Odagiri), the effeminate psychotic killers that was send to slaughter the group of assassins. One of the interesting insights was how this talented actor gets into his character’s thirst for blood and his focus on achieving the character’s mentality.

Another highlight would be the look at behind the scene of the last major battle in Azumi, revealing how they used camera works and special effects to capture the climatic finale.

Promotion Clips



Basically a continuous stream of Azumi trailers with a 2 minutes runtime.

Azumi II Death or Love Press Kit

Contains 2 mins of continuous Azumi II’s trailers which are could be skipped and this is followed by 9 mins of Azumi II segments.

Azumi II Dvd Added Value



This segment features mainly interview with Azumi actress, Aya Ueto on her thoughts about the first Azumi and the sequel that follows. It initially covers the accolades that the first Azumi movie received and the pressure that Aya Ueto faced in playing the character she helped bring to life.

It also branches out to her thoughts on the new director Shusuke Kaneko, new characters and returning characters in Azumi II. This segment prepares the audiences on what to expect for in the sequel.

Overall Verdict of this Azumi Dvd:

Although the cover of BlueMax’s cover for Azumi is a far cry from the Japanese release, a reappearing BlueMax icon and a 2ch audio format, Bluemax’s Azumi’s is still one of the better local Dvd release thus far in terms of their picture quality and the extras that has been packed into this set.

MOVIE RATING :


DVD RATING :

Review by Richard Lim Jr

 

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This review is made possible with the kind support from Blue Max


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