Azumi (2003)

While I enjoy anime as much as the next geek, nothing can beat the sheer visceral thrill of live-action comic book adaptations.

Serialised in comic form since 1994, Azumi is the ultra-violent tale of a teenage girl raised, with nine young boys, in a hidden mountain retreat to form an elite cadre of assassins to restore peace to Japan by killing off warlords who make trouble.

The two-hour movie starts slowly, and at first I wasn't sure where it was going. Then once the 10 assassins were exposed to their "final test" before heading into the outside world to complete their mission, I began to appreciate what a brutally clever film this was going to be.

Obviously it helps that Azumi herself (Aya Ueto) is very easy on the eye and let's be honest to most geeks there are few things hotter - besides our significant others - than an Asian lady with a katana!

And, yes, there is a lot of blood - more than a Victorian slaughterhouse - although few actual graphic wounds (one severed arm and a couple of decapitations that I can recall) but the swordplay and creativity of the stunts distracts from the red stuff anyway.

Azumi and her cohorts are tasked with killing three particular warlords, but to get to their targets they have to carve their way through hordes of samurai, ninjas and bandits in a variety of inventive settings and, often, massively outnumbered.

Mix this in with some incredible characters - the stand-out being the effeminate psychopath Bijomaru Mogami (Jô Odagiri) - and a thought-provoking plot and Azumi surprised me by quickly rising to classic status.

Tackling honour, friendship and the cycle of violence, the film certainly doesn't preach, instead choosing to serve up its lessons with a heavy dose of tomato ketchup through its morally ambiguous protagonist constantly questioning the veracity of her mission, but finding her heritage impossible to ignore.

For those who love their chanbara, I cannot recommend Azumi highly enough.