2003, Action
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Starring: Aya Ueto, Joe Odagiri, and Naoto Takenaka

Azumi (Aya Ueto) is the only female among a group of 10 people who have been trained since childhood to be assassins in their mountainous region. When warlords are vying for power, threatening the nation and trying to stir up some troubles, Master decides that it is time for them to leave the mountain and assassinate three warlords before the war breaks.

Azumi is based on the manga of the same title. I have never read the series so I don’t know how accurate it is. But this is what the action film is supposed to be.  It is definitely super cool from the beginning to the end. And yes, action is the main character of the film but the story isn’t constructed it like a lot of recent action films. You get to know enough about each character and their blaze of glory moment couldn’t be more memorable. I won’t get into any specific action scenes because words will not do any justice.

Ryuhei Kitamura knows exactly what he is doing.  He declined an offer from Hollywood to make this film. And I am glad he did. Those freaks of Hollywood wouldn’t know what to do with him. What’s interesting and most impressive about this film is that they choreographed all of the action scenes the day they were shot. And having this J-pop girl to perform almost all the action. 

In the making-of features, Ryuhei mentioned that he didn’t want to just use her on close ups and have a stunt double do the action. Insteady, he wanted to have her perform all the action even though she isn’t physically up trained for it and may not look good and realistic. Folks, that truly paid off. Aya looks so great every time she slices someone and gives the pose.

This is the flashiest, the coolest, and the most entertaining samurai film since Lone Wolf And A Cub.  It is just like Versus. After two hours of watching, you will want more.

Shogo is an award-award winning filmmaker currently hard at work on a new project. Asian Fever is his weekly column devoted to Asian cinema and related topics.