Assassins Azumi and Nagara are on a quest to bring peace to Japan, mainly by killing troublemaking warlords. There's just one left to deal with. Masayuki Sanada, who is getting ready to start a war.
Joining forces with another female ninja and a motley collection of former brigands, to complete her mission Azumi has to face Sanada's army and his own, personal force of Ninjas.
It would probably have helped if I'd seen the first Azumi movie. Correction, it would definitely have helped.
Azumi 2 takes off where the first film left off, with our ninja twosome still determined to complete their assignment. Which means that we're dropped into the middle of events and expected to get ourselves up to speed with who these people are and why they want to go here and kill this person.
There's some flashbacks, mainly to let us know that Azumi is still a bit traumatised by certain events from the last film. Said flashbacks being a bit hamfisted in my opinion - do we really need an overextended sequence of a deceased friend smiling and saying "Azumi" to establish that our heroine had a bit of a thing for him?
I also thought it was a bit weird that Azumi isn't the most interesting character in her own film. Villainess Lady Kunyo was a lot more fun to watch and it's a shame that their eventual showdown was so disappointing.
Then there's the Kabuki painted brigand whose name escapes me. Going by the bits he's in, I think I'd have liked to see a whole film about him.
By contrast Azumi seems a bit flat. Maybe that's just me.
Moving on to the action sequences - the reason I picked up the DVD in the first place - they're OK but could have been better. In true Ninja fashion, Sanada's crew have their own slightly preposterous gimmick but put up a surprisingly poor fight against Azumi and her team.
The best fight in the entire film is Azumi's showdown in a bamboo thicket against an opponent who weaves a net of razorsharp wires. It's got some real (ahem) tension to it and is definitely the high point of the film. By contrast the climax is a bit of a letdown.
It starts well, with Azumi literally taking on an entire army but then people decide to start talking instead and the momentum drops off. By the time the final duel rolls around I'd almost lost interest.
How much did I pay for this: £1
Was it worth it? Debatable. I thought Azumi 2 could have been better, frankly. I didn't hate it, but I wasn't impressed either.
For some reason nobody has ever managed to do a decent, non-anime Ninja movie. Azumi 2 doesn't change that.
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