azumi movie

azumi (warning: spoilers ahead) i did a marathon of azumi 1 and 2 and watched them back to back. azumi is based on the manga by yu koyama (never heard of it before nor seen it so i won't be able to compare). it was long! still, a feast for the eyes to watch. i mean aya ueto was so pretty and having oguri shun there wasn't bad either.he was present only in the first part of the first movie but played a relatively bigger role in the second. fights abound and the period action film fangirl in me was happy. i can tell joe odagiri's villainous character, sword-crazy-rose-carrying-fighting-perv bijomaru mogami was straight out of the manga. i think he did a good job interpreting the character and he was oozing with lunacy in the scene where he can not contain his happiness as everyone was killing each other and dropping like flies all around him. there was also this amazing crazily-angled shot of his fight with azumi that made my jaw drop. aya ueto as azumi, although very easy on the eyes, sadly lacks a bit in the acting department. she was supposed to be this undefeatable, bad-ass, sword genius among all the assassins but the lack of power and speed in her swordplay fails to convince [the extras patiently waiting for their turn to be chopped off by her didn't help either]. i also did not feel any depth of emotion even in the different heart-wrenching scenes when her comrades die. she experienced every possible kind of heartache known to man, and yet wasn't able to make me empathize. with lowered expectations in terms of depth of acting and believable sword-fights one can actually enjoy this movie for its visual appeal. expect excessive amounts of blood gushing from pierced or beheaded characters. (^^;)