Azumi 2: Death or Love (2005)

Azumi 2: Death or Love: Directed by Shûsuke Kaneko. With Aya Ueto, Yûma Ishigaki, Chiaki Kuriyama, Shun Oguri. Young assassins Azumi and Nagara continue their mission to prevent a civil war. In their hunt for Masayuki Sanada, who is protected by both an army and a dangerous clan, they meet Ginkaku, a person who shows a remarking resemblance with former friend Nachi.

“The second installment, and the final chapter of Azumiu0026#39;s saga picks up where the first one left off. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMonk Tenkai (Shigeru Kouyama) is still leading the ninja assassin troop to hunt down the remaining warlords of the Toyotomi clan. Azumi (Aya Ueto), and Nagara (Yuuma Ishigaki) who are the survivors from the first movie is part of Tenkaiu0026#39;s assassins. There is a girl ninja in Tenkaiu0026#39;s troop named Kozue (Chiaki Kurihara) who joins Azumi, and Nagara. Together they take off to assassinate Masayuki Sanada (Mikijiro Hira). On their way, they meet a group of bandits. One of them named Ginkaku (Shun Oguri) looks exactly like Azumiu0026#39;s first love Nachi. Kozue tells Nagara that Azumi secretly wants to defect with Ginkaku and live a peaceful life. In order to help Azumi realize her dream, Nagara suggests to go separate ways sending Azumi on a wild goose chase. Nagara, and Kozue then heads out to assassinate Masayuki Sanada. On their way, Kozue shows her true color as Masayukiu0026#39;s double agent. In the mean time, Masayuki decides to mount a preemptive strike on Tenkaiu0026#39;s troops, and leaves his castle to assassinate them. Just when this seems to succeed, Azumi and the bandits shows up and defeats Masayukiu0026#39;s first wave of attack. Masayukiu0026#39;s main troop plans for another attack, this time with ninja Tsuchigumo (Taku Sakaguchi), and Kuunyo (Reiko Takashima). In the mean time, Kozue shows up at Tenkaiu0026#39;s camp, and tells she got separated from Nagara. Then she moves to assassinate Tenkai, but is cut down by Azumi. On her way to kill Masayuki, Azumi encounters Tsuchigumo, and is nearly defeated by his steel wire attack. She survives, but now Kuunyo stands in her way. Drugged and nearly unconscious, Azumi canu0026#39;t fend for her life. Just when Kuunyo is about to give the finishing blow, Ginkaku shows up and stabs Kuunyo, but also gets fatally wounded by Kuunyou0026#39;s lance. Azumi continues to Masayukiu0026#39;s camp, and Masayuki furious of Azumi killing Kuunyo, and his other henchmen, moves to a duel with Azumi.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUnlike the first Azumi which was mostly based on Kill Bill like action, this version is more poetic, and story driven. Thereu0026#39;s sadness to the whole story, and makes you wonder how Azumiu0026#39;s life will be like in the future. Ironically, director Shunsuke Kaneko who was a big fan of Kill Bill Vol 1 hired actress Chiaki Kuriyama who played Go Go in Kill Bill to play the role of Kozue on this film. Aya Ueto is more mature and pretty as ever. This is one lady who best of Hollywood beauties will have hard time competing with, and she can act to boot.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBitter sweet saga that begs for a sequel, but probably wouldnu0026#39;t happen due to Aya Uetou0026#39;s current age.”