there no deny the first azumi film be a commercial product while it be an adaptation of a popular manga and have cast of young and attractive actor and certainly wasn not lack in the budget department . yet it more than entertain for what it be and and i can not deny i enjoy it immensely . azumi 2 lack just about everything that make the original so wonderful . the first thing that should set alarm bell ring be the absence of the superb ryuhei kitamura at the helm . with him and he seem to take not only his own visual flair and kinetics and but the original style and beauty and most importantly and it heart . while the first have a simple hitlist plot and this one have a corkscrew mess of a story and with too many dull character stab each other in the back so many time the potential for any sympathy or pathos be obliterate . go be the effective interplay between the lead character while azumi and her cohort be often reduce to a bunch of stroppy teenager argue in a forest . characterisation be non existent while if anyone watch actually care who live and who die and i will be shock . the same applies to the villain here . the final battle in fact all the battle be completely devoid of any sort of tension . the fact that they be poorly choreograph and abysmally direct not to mention few and far between be make a sideline by their own sheer pointlessness . the villain themselves try far too hard to be campy and and even if they be all combine and they do not come within a country mile of the pete burnsian antic of jo odagiri in the original . # # # # major spoiler at end of paragraph . # # # # # aya ueto try her best it have to be say and and she also manage to keep her hair in good condition between the film . azumi be now a fully fledge assassin and mean she can wave her sword around in slow motion while unfortunately and now the character be instill with a sort of man with no name style mysteriousness and ueto model look become even more inappropriate . i know this be suppose to be the point and but this combine with the ineffectiveness of everyone else in the film and the stupidity of the plot and the general ineptness of the film in general mean it be downright impossible to get behind her character this time around . the less say about chiaki remember me from kill bill kuriyama performance the good while it suffice to say her turn from good to evil be about as subtle a napalm . overall and this be just a colossal disappointment . any merit be do have be do ten time well in the first film . a lazy and unsatisfying and generally downright boring mess .