i love the first azumi movie . i have see ms. ueto in a variety of her tv appearance and i have see my fair share of samurai and ninja flick . i have to say that this movie be much weak than i would expect . give the movie cast and set up in azumi and they should have be able to do a much good job with this movie and but instead it be slow and plod in part and and sprinkle with very poor and unconvincing and and wooden acting . when they bother to reference the first movie and they do so in a manner that be pretty loose and weak . in azumi and the title character be the best of a group of superior killer . in azumi 2 she seem somehow diminish and less impressive . that not to say it be a total loss . there be a few decent fight scene and some over the top character . unfortunately and the movie suffers overall from the simple fact that shusuke kaneko and yoshiaki kawajiri be not ryuhei kitamura and isao kiriyama . the latter two truly capture the manga feel in their screenplay whereas the former never quite get it .