There is one reason why I watched this movie and yes you’ve guess it, Oguri Shun. But it kinda devastated me because his appearance didn’t last for 30 minutes all together. Oh well, after seeing some of the first few scenes I know I’m going to like it.
Azumi (Aya Ueto) was orphaned when she was just little. Her master, Gessai, found her and trained her to become an assassin together with 9 other orphaned boys. Gessai (Yoshio Harada) is a former soldier, when his army lost to the enemy, Priest Tenkai gave him an order to train assassins and kill the warlords. One day, they were all called for one last session. They were asked to pair up and then gave them the order to kill each other. Nachi (Oguri Shun) and Azumi were hailed to be the first and second (respectively) best in training by their friends and fellow trainees. But unfortunately they were paired in the last session. *sigh* Nachi, as much as he didn’t want to, pulled his sword and told Azumi to do the same saying it was their destiny. Nachi died along with the other four trainees. Five were left to carry out the long awaited missions with their Master Gessai.
These assassins are still young maybe 15-18 years old and all their lives they were trained to hold a sword in the mountains. When they got to a village they saw it was being attacked. As much as they want to help they were stopped by their master. After the massacre, they questioned their master but they were reminded of their mission though it was never cleared to from the very start. A ninja called Nagato came to them and gave them the order from Tenkai to assassinate the three warlords and stop the impending war.
The story is probably set around the era where Japan is starting to form an alliance with Europe because some of the soldiers already know how to use a gun. I enjoyed the scenery of the movie it is set in old Japan makes me want to go there. So cute! And so much blood is used in the fights.
I especially enjoyed the serial killer character in the movie named Bijomaru Mogami he was imprisoned for the said crimes and was hired by Kanbei to fight the assassins. He’s so cute, I mean he’s shonen long hair was mistaken for a girl that is usually found holding a red rose and armed with a sword without an arm guard and wears a lot of white. I wonder what’s the deal with him, why wear all that white when going to a battle? Didn’t he know blood stains are hard to wash off? hehehe just kidding. He talks in a calm manner but the words he put out are violent and threatening. He also started saying “Sugoi” when Azumi was fighting all the soilders and samurais in the village. He’s so adorable and crazy.
A movie worth watching especially those who likes to watch Samurai movies or gore… ok maybe it’s not categorized in gore but there so much death in the movie. But if you’re reason for watching the same with mine, well as I’ve said his appearance didn’t last for 30 minutes all together but might as well, ne?
originally posted: July 19, 2007
