A Rental Worth Your Time, or, ARWYT: "Azumi"

Azumi is the movie version of the popular Japanese Manga series of the same name. It is the story of children trained from tender young ages to be assassins. Azumi and the other "kids" are taught to be indestructible warriors; killing machines. It has a mind-blowingly harsh twist in the first 15 minutes which I cannot in good conscience give away...
Azumi was directed by visionary Ryuhei Kitamura (Verses). Ryuhei wanted to make sure the action sequences were realistic, so he used no stunt doubles, and had all the youngsters learning their intricate martial arts moves on the fly. The on-set squabbles between he and the film's Producer are well known, and documented in the DVD extras. It ain't easy to get what you want...
The apex of the film -- and this is a film -- is the climactic fight scene between our young Japanese pop star and an evil village of 200 lunatics.


I really enjoyed the performances -- the young actors are excellent, and I dig the whole "Japanese Oliver Twist" thing, wherein a "Fagin-like" character trains orphans to kill...
Bloody, heavy, very quirky and worth your time - a new kind of Samurai Film.

3 1/4 out of 5 Stars.

Let me know what you think...
AZUMI TRAILER

Saturday Night's alright for fighting...

“It’s just something I believe in and believe in strongly. I’m always going to do that. We ask our fans to buy a lot of pay-per-view and so I believe they deserve this. And I’m not going to be greedy and give them all of the good stuff on pay-per-view and put dog (expletive) on (basic cable) TV. I’m going to put our best guys on for them.”
-- UFC President Dana White on Saturday's free Fight Night

UFC 75

Date: Sept. 8, 2007
Location: London, England
Broadcast: Spike TV, 9pm (tape delay)

MAIN CARD

• PRIDE champion Dan Henderson vs. UFC champion Quinton Jackson
• Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Cheick Kongo
• Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill
• Houston Alexander vs. Alessio Sakara

Free, baby! For those of you who have never seen a night of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), Saturday would be a fine time to check it out... a GREAT card, with two Champions fighting each other, great personal drama, and Cro Cop: Croatia's head of their counter-terrorism unit (and Democratic Parliament Member).
Need a primer for Saturday (and why you should watch)? Email me. I will pitch you and sell you...

Fight Card: A-
UFC's overall packaging: D-