Sunday, January 16th, 2005

AZUMI

AZUMI
Written & Directed By Ryuhei Kitamura
(Based on the comic book series created by Yu Koyama)
Reviewed by Robert N. Skir


A rousing action-adventure epic set in feudal Japan, Azumi tells the story of a young girl whose inescapable destiny is to become a warrior-assassin. The film is filled with dazzling fight sequences, memorable characters, and is shot with a style that enhances rather than dominates.


Orphaned at an early age, Azumi’s sad fortune is to be adapted by Master Ji, who trains her along with nine other children. Their final examination involves pairing into “teams”; each is then instructed slay his (or her) counterpart, so that the remaining five will be worthy of fulfilling their mission—the slaying of the top three warlords who have made the countryside into a perpetual battlefield fit only for bandits and ninjas.


Azumi and her compatriots set out on their quest, encountering all manner of thieves, cutthroats, and warriors… let’s just say it’s a good day for people who enjoy a high body count. Unlike Dorothy, whose road was covered with yellow bricks, Azumi’s muddy path is soaked with the blood of her enemies and allies alike, until she alone is left to confront an entire village of crazed mercenaries… and that’s not even her final battle!


Throughout her journey, Azumi frequently displays a moral compass totally lacking in her fellow warriors; seeing families cut to pieces and innocent people literally dragged off to unspeakable (and undisclosed) fates, Azumi alone demands to know why her Master won’t let her and her compatriots intervene. Although she acquiesces when he gruffly tells her that they cannot reveal themselves lest they jeopardize their mission, Azumi clearly displays a level of empathy for victims others might callously label “collateral damage”. In fact, Azumi never aspires to be either warrior or assassin; at one point she tries to leave the war behind, seeking to enjoy the life robbed from her as a small child. However, as with many the reluctant hero, circumstances ultimately force her grasp personal destiny and katana alike.


Azumi’s imagery is often dazzling, beginning the evocative montage of warring crows that opens the film. Kitamura composes quiet, still shots with the same care and precision as he does his battles, making for a richly textured film as striking for its quiet repose as for its mayhem. Suspended moments—in which split-seconds are stretched into long-held beats—hearken to Sergio Leone’s very best Spaghetti Westerns, while the battles recall Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon and The Matrix. And while Azumi achieves neither the mescaline-madness of Leone, nor the grand poetry of Tiger/Dragon, it certainly delivers on the fun and thrills.


In Azumi, Ryuhei Kitamura strives to elevate a comic book series to the lofty heights of the cinema that inspired it—and he achieves this goal quite admirably.


“I wonder how far this sky goes,” muses one character early in the film. Thinking back on Azumi, I can’t help but share that question about its director.

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