Azumi 2: Death or Love (2005)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Urban Vision Entertainment / 2007
Directed by Shusuke Kaneko
Written by Rikiya Mizushima and Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Cast: Aya Ueto, Chiaki Kuriyama, Yuma Ishigaki, Shun Oguri, Kenichi Endou
Review by Jude Felton

Although having seen the previous movie is not a neccessary requirement, as there are a few flashback scenes to fill you in, I would definitely recommend catching it before you sit down to view Azumi 2: Death or Love. As if I give too much away about the plot of this movie I would spoil the first one slightly. That being said, I will endeavour to do my best whilst keeping things spoiler free.

Azumi, played the quite gorgeous Aya Ueto, is an assassin who has been trained since childhood to become a cold-blooded killer. Her mission in Azumi 2 is, along with the help of fellow assassin Nagada, is to hunt down a notorious warlord and kill him with the end result being an end to all wars. Unbeknownst to the duo though the warlord has heard about their plans and, aside from amassing his army, has employed the Koga Ninja Clan to hunt them down and kill them, before they get to him.

Along the way Azumi and Nagada encounter bandits, and other assorted characters, as the story twists and turns with betrayals, lavish fight scenes and copious amounts of arterial spray.

This is definitely a film that you need to pay a decent amount of attention to, as the story isn't a straightforward A,B,C turn of events, and it is quite easy to lose track of what is going on. That being said, with everything looking quite as pleasing to the eye as it is I suspect that this won't be a problem.

Aya Ueto is by far the star of the show, as she was in the original movie, but she is backed up admirably by the rest of the cast. All of them show some decent acting chops as well as some more than impressive chops in the numerous fight scenes, because let's face it this movie is all about the hacking and slashing and leaping about.

• Screen Format: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen / Color
• Audio: English, Japanese / 5.1 Surround
• Subtitles: English
• Running Time: 108 mins.

• Featurette - "Through the eyes of Azumi"
• Image Gallery
• Trailers

Azumi 2: Death or Love is a fine follow-up to the first movie. It does get a little lost in its own, numerous, plot turns, however the action scenes more than make up for this, without having quite the same Wow factor that the previous movie did. This is a far more personal movie that emphasizes Azumi's relationships with her friends past and present, and as such it does lag in places most notably towards the end. Saying that though, I did get swept along with the story, it is beautifully shot, has some above average special effects for the most part, and the blood does flow like a river. This was a most enjoyable romp through feudalistic Japan.

"More hack-slashery than you can shake a Samurai sword at!"