The plot is so full of holes, that the entire army of the Lord whatever-his-name-was that got killed by Azumi would fall through. The cast is OK, although I would not call their acting brilliant. The only good roles were Monkey Face and Bijoumaru. The direction is average, with lots of action scenes spoiled by inexperienced cast in the background obviously pretending to fight or hit things. The girl is cute.
This doesn't make it a complete failure, mind you, yet it shows the inexperience of the movie crew. Maybe part II of Azumi will be better, as I intend to watch it tonight.
The main problem of the film is that it's about assassins. Yet they behave like soldiers. They care about each other and "the cause", they kill entire armies to get to their mark, they listen blindly to their leader. Also, the military strategy they employ is idiotic.
I do think that when one designs a movie it is easier to think about scenes than actually create them, so why didn't they think this through? I've enjoyed films with low budget and good thinking, but I will never back movies that have a relatively high budget and a bad story.
This doesn't make it a complete failure, mind you, yet it shows the inexperience of the movie crew. Maybe part II of Azumi will be better, as I intend to watch it tonight.
The main problem of the film is that it's about assassins. Yet they behave like soldiers. They care about each other and "the cause", they kill entire armies to get to their mark, they listen blindly to their leader. Also, the military strategy they employ is idiotic.
I do think that when one designs a movie it is easier to think about scenes than actually create them, so why didn't they think this through? I've enjoyed films with low budget and good thinking, but I will never back movies that have a relatively high budget and a bad story.