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Product Detail |
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Audio Format: DD 5.1, DD 2.0
Video Format: Widescreen 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
Languages: Japanese
Subtitles: Japanese, Chinese (T/S)
Region Code: 3
Year Made: 2005
Running Time: 113
Release Date: 12/24/2007
 Azumi 2, which picks up shortly after the events of the first Azumi, is set around the beginning of the Tokugawa period of Japan (1603 - 1867). In Azumi 2, the sword-wielding Azumi struggles to put to rest the threat of Tokugawa rival Masayuki Sanada in order to maintain national unity and to keep Japan on its destined course.
Azumi is based on the manga by Yuu Koyama and was originally presented in Big Comic Spirits in 1994. Since then, it has been released by Shogakukan in incrementing volumes.
Azumi II continues shortly after the end of the previous film with Aya Ueta returning in the title role of a young ninja assassin charged with keeping the nation from falling into civil war. Her main opponent is a government official named Masayuki Sanada (Mikijiro Hira) who employs a "killer ninja squad."
Coming two years after the first, “Azumi 2? continues the adventures of diminutive swordslinging assassin Azumi (Aya Ueto), who we find on the run with fellow killer Nagara (Yuma Ishigaki), the two being the only ones still alive after the events of the first movie. The pair is dogged by Kanbei (Kazuki Kitamura), a vengeful samurai whose own lord was killed by Azumi. Determined to get payback, Kanbei has hired himself a gang of high-tech ninjas armed with pistols, mesh armor, and groovy masks. Still determined to complete her mission (she has one more target to go), Azumi and Nagara sets out to finish their job or die trying.
Along the way our battling twosome encounters Ginkaku (Shun Oguri), a petty bandit who bears a striking resemblance to Nachi (the fact that they’re played by the same actor helps), who we saw Azumi kill in the original film as her final test into assassinhood. Apparently for no reason other that he thinks she’s quite purty, Ginkaku makes it his mission to convince Azumi of her misguided ways, but ends up tagging along with her and Nagara as they continue their trek to take out Lord Sanada (Mikjiro Hira), the last name on the hit list. And oh yeah, Chiaki Kuriyama, still living high on the hog off her schoolgirl killer role in Quentin Tarantino’s bloodfest “Kill Bill”, tags along as a giggling ninja girl with a knack for the bow and arrow.
Although it’s a just a little bit shorter than the first film (which clocked in at well over two hours, as Kitamura’s movies are wont to do), “Azumi 2? actually has even less to work with in terms of story. The screenplay by Mataichiro Yamamoto is mostly random in nature, providing just enough Teen Movie-level romance and broad emotional investment to get the characters to the next swordfight. Like the first, the sequel is chock full of swordfights, but something is missing here — namely, credibility. Without Kitamura’s flash and editing chops, “Azumi 2’s” bloody fights (and they are oftentimes quite bloody, including the usual spraying blood and a lot of CGI-assisted bodily dissections) seem straightforward and lacking punch.
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