Azumi is an unconvincing and poorly Directed film. The main problem is the casting of a girl who in no way has the physical dexterity, grace or strength to pull off the fight scenes. Aya Ueto looks frail and she moves very slowly in the action scenes, the complete opposite of Ziyi Zhang in "House of Flying Daggers." All the sharp cutting and ridiculous Camera angles can do nothing to hide her lack of skill and rhythm. <br /><br />The film as a whole is a mess. It wants to be a mix of "Yojimbo" and "Battle Royal" but fails miserably. Towards the latter part of the movie, comedy seems to want to take over, strange cartoon like noises suddenly accompany the action and I found them completely out of place. <br /><br />With the highly tuned and masterful direction of such action films as "House of Flying Daggers" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the fight scenes in this movie seemed half- baked. Not enough thought had gone into the choreography and it showed. Men just seemed to fall down as Azumi skipped by.