3/1/2005

Azumi was the adaptation of a famous ninja manga about a teenage girl ninja on a trip to avenge her ninja friends. It was directed by wonderboy Ryuhei Kitamura also responsible for Versus.
Released in 2003 it became a cult phenomenon amongst asian action flicks nerds. Kitamura’s style was all over it, blood, fights, blood, blade, corny people, blood, gay murderer, blood. Oh, and also his famous “technique” of hanging the camera to wires, not the actors. So basically it’s regular ass fights with the camera swinging all over the place.
Well people, you’ll be happy to know that Azumi’s back in Azumi 2, subtitled “Death or Love”. Aya Ueto is reprising her role as Azumi, Kitamura’s gone and it’s Shusuke Kaneko who’s directing it. Now who the hell is Shusuke Kaneko ? It’s the director of GAMERA 3 of course. Yes my favorite kaiju movie of modern times.
Now does that mean that Azumi 2 is not gonna suck ? Well…
Anyway the movie will be released on the 12th of March if my memory is correct. Here’s the official site and the now very popular trailer.
By the way the dancing chihuahuas on the giant screens of shibuya look more violent, scary and ninja overall than Aya Ueto in that movie trailer.

Forgot to mention, Chiaki Kuriyama, of Kill Bill fame, is also part of the cast of Azumi 2. She was also in Seagall’s Into the sun recently but that’s a whole different story. I might talk about Into the sun in the futur, after all it is Japan related.