Plot: Azumi begins the film as the only girl among 10 warriors who have been trained from childhood by Jiji, a gray-bearded samurai. One day, Jiji tells them they must pass a final test before they embark on the mission they have prepared for all these years. He pairs them up, and, only five survive, including Azumi. Led by Jiji, this small band descends from the mountain that is the only world they know. Their mission, we learn, is to stop a nefarious plot to unseat the current shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, by the supporters of Hideyori, the son of deceased warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In other words, they are out to prevent a civil war of the kind that devastated their own families before Ieyasy wrested power from his rivals at the battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and imposed peace...
Alternative Plot: In 19th-century Japan a master swordsman turns a girl named Azumi (Aya Ueto) and a group of other orphans into assassins whose mission is to eliminate hostile warlords. When one such warlord orders the destruction of the young assassins, his lackey liberates a fearsome killer named Bijomaru to accomplish the task. A grisly battle ensues as Azumi and her comrades fight for survival.
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