Critic Reviews
| 88 |
TV Guide
Features more than enough thrilling wirework, slow and agonizing deaths, and blood-spattered faces to please even the most discriminating fans of the genre.
|
| 75 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
As a moody drama, it falls short, but as lightweight escapism, it sets off sporadic but irresistible explosions of pure cinematic delight.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
A movie of such cheerful craziness and nonstop ferocity that you can't take it seriously for a second.
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
The tone is bleak and the comic-book violence relentless, but the wirework and Yuta Morokaji's stunt choreography are impressive, culminating in a breathless showdown between the title character (Aya Ueto) and 200 foes.
|
| 50 |
Film Threat
A little boring and extremely long for what it is, all that Azumi really has going for it are several eye-popping battle sequences, including the climax which is a totally delicious celebration of graphic violence, and some nice camera work.
|
| 50 |
Variety
Inevitable comparisons to Quentin Tarentino's femme-centered carnage extravaganza "Kill Bill" are not unwarranted insofar as both films featurefeature an abstract, self-conscious, and decidedly post-modern approach to a moribund genre.
|
| 50 |
New York Daily News
It's a bad idea to get too fond of any character, no matter how worthy he (or she) may appear.
|
| 50 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Unfortunately, the film itself -- though it contains some superbly staged and highly lavish action sequences -- lacks the tautness of its heroine.
|
| 50 |
Los Angeles Times
Mark Olsen
An uneven effort overall that when it is working has a strange, engaging energy that is often overturned by an uncertain staidness.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
G. Allen Johnson
It is probably Kitamura's best film.
|
| 40 |
LA Weekly
James C. Taylor
Failing in its attempts at Zhang Yimou–like poetry, Azumi calls to mind a long, blood-splattered director's cut of a Power Rangers episode.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
The director, Ryuhei Kitamura, whose earlier films include the cult film "Versus," brings nothing new to the samurai-swordsman game other than some styling shorts for the whelps and a miniskirt for Azumi.
|
| 38 |
New York Post
The story is superficial at best. And the movie is too long.
|
| 30 |
Village Voice
If you're considering the scenario via Japan's ubiquitous pedo-porn tendencies, you're too educated for this exhaustive, manga-based bloodbath, which trails after these angsty teenyboppers on a scorched-fake-earth path through hundreds of growling baddies of every genre size and type.
|
|
