Azumi, based off the manga by Yu Koyama with the same name, is a story about a group of ten assassins, nine males and one female - Azumi, who were trained since childhood to kill the warlords threatening Tokugawa. The first mission that their master assigns to the ten - to kill their partner. Those remaining will be continuing on their mission.

Azumi is a likeable character throughout the movie. She does her job and she does it well. However, she slowly begins to question her actions as the movie progresses. Who are the people she is trying to kill and why is she trying to kill them? She faithfully obeys her master until one of her companions is fatally wounded. Staying behind with one of her friends, Hyuga, to nurse their dying friend, Azumi realizes that this is not the life she wants. However, her dying friend, understanding the reason why they are staying behind, ends his own life.

When Hyuga escorts Yae, a female performer who he is fond of, back to the main road, he is attacked by Bijomaru, an effeminate man, and eventually killed in front of Yae. Yae narrowly escapes Bijomaru and returns to where Azumi was waiting and tries to convince her to become a woman and leave her life of violence. However, as they head towards Yae's hometown, they are attacked by bandits, and Azumi realizes that although she wants to leave that part of her life behind, there are always others that bring her back to it. Azumi then decides to finish what she has started.

This movie is very fast-paced and the action sequences kept my heart pumping the whole time. This movie is very action oriented and is definitely one of those hack and slash movies.

There are tons of fight scenes throughout the entire movie and a lot of blood and gore. The fight scenes were pretty well done for the most part - lots of action and katana swinging and definitely the highlight of the movie. However, the blood and gore was definitely not my cup of tea. But then again, that was the style of the movie.

There were some things that did detract from the movie for the action scenes. For example, occasionally they would be killing the enemies, but there was obviously no blood - not even the tiniest drop of it. It you're going to gratuitously make the movie bloody and gory, you might as well make sure that there's some blood showing even in the minor scenes.

Another beef I had about the movie was that it was sometimes cheesy. There was one character who looked like a monkey and appropriately named Saru (the Japanese word for monkey). Every time he was attacked, he would make this monkey yelping noise that would make anyone laugh. This might have been the comedic relief for the movie, but they could have done something a little more subtle. It felt inappropriate and a little out of place.

If Saru was the comedic relief, Bijomaru was the extreme antagonist. Bijomaru was a feminine character that enjoyed killing and watching people's pain as they slowly die. Although I hated this character, I have to admit that he was interesting and perfect as the antagonist. His sick pleasure of death that even his allies despised made me anticipate the final battle - the battle between him and our heroine, Azumi.

Overall, this movie was entertaining. The story was decent but not particularly strong, but the action was what drove the movie. It is definitely something worth seeing if you're looking for a movie that is exciting and action oriented.

And for even more Azumi, Azumi 2 is in production.