Year: 2005
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Written by: Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Yu Koyama, Mataichiro Yamamoto
Main cast: Aya Ueto, Yuma Ishigaki, Chiaki Kuriyama, Shun Oguri, Kenichi Endo, Kai Shishido, Eugene Nomura, Tak Sakaguchi
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, War, Samurai
Runtime: 113 min.
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: Japanese, english
Buy DVD: CDJapan.com
Based on the manga by Yu Koyama, Azumi 2-Death or Love picks up where the last film left off, with the title character wandering around Japan with her good friend Nagara in tow. But in her travels, Azumi's life is interrupted by violence once more. This time around, Azumi has found herself caught in the thick of some major internal strife within the Japanese government and is enlisted by a lord to dispose of a rival official, the evil Sanada Masayuki. With no other choice left to her, Azumi must unsheathe her sword once more and mete out bloody retribution.
While Azumi was a great movie, this sequel is really weak. Obviously made only for commercial purpose, it's gruesome but empty, souless, boring and without any meaning. The director is now Shusuke Kaneko, which has nothing of the Kitamura's cleverness and style. Some action scenes (especially those featuring Tak) are beautiful, but there's nothing more. Cute Aya Ueto has not the spirit she had in first Azumi, and the romance between her and the nice Shun Oguri is quite boring. Chiaki Kuriyama plays well one of her typical bad roles, but reminds too much another Go Go Yubari. Tak plays the bad Tsuchi-gumo, an assassin with singular fighting techniques connected with blades, cobwebs and black spider's poison. His character is truly interesting, but appears for a too short time and is hardly recognizable, because his face is all covered with mud. So, nevermind Azumi 2 and avoid it. It's not interesting at all, neither for those who love samurai movies, nor for Tak's fans.
Rating: 4/10