40
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.
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What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
It's a bad idea to get too fond of any character, no matter how worthy he (or she) may appear.
50
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
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
Unfortunately, the film itself -- though it contains some superbly staged and highly lavish action sequences -- lacks the tautness of its heroine.
88
Features more than enough thrilling wirework, slow and agonizing deaths, and blood-spattered faces to please even the most discriminating fans of the genre.
40
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
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.
30
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
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.
50
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.
38
The story is superficial at best. And the movie is too long.