Double-bill of Japanese period action. In ‘Azumi’ (2003), Aya Ueto stars as Azumi, a beautiful young femme fatale who, along with nine other orphans, has been trained as an assassin by martial arts master Gessai (Yoshio Harada). To test the fearlessness of his trainees, Gessai orders them to pair off and fight until death – a mission that provokes Azumi to start questioning her role. But, caught in Gessai’s lethal trap, and under orders to kill the evil warlords that are tearing the country apart, she must forge ahead despite the immorality and bloodshed. In ‘Azumi 2’ (2005), for their next mission, Azumi (Ueto) and Nagara (Yuma Ishigaki) head towards the Kudo Mountains with the help of a beautiful female ninja (Chiaki Kuriyama) to track down and kill Sanada (Toshiya Nagasawa). On the journey, Azumi meets a young thief, Ginkaku (Shun Oguri), who resembles her first love and friend Nachi, whom she was ordered to kill to prove her worth as an assassin. As Azumi and Ginkaku’s feelings towards each other grow, Ginkaku tries to persuade Azumi to quit her life as an assassin and lead a normal life with him. Nagara is advised by Kozue (Chiaki Kuriyama) to let Azumi go her own way, unaware that Kozue has motives of her own for wanting to split them up. As Azumi draws nearer to her target, she must defeat the armies that have been sent to kill her and learn the awful truth about Kozue.