Woods Hole Film Festival 2009

The traces left by the era of the samurai are still with us today. From this rich history of this ancient warrior culture comes a tale of honor, vengeance and redemption with a dark, sense of meaningless fatality. It is the origin story of a cursed vigilante, Ai, hell-bent on disposing those responsible for her clan’s demise.The young female sensei and savoir, Yoshizo, has molded Ai into a deadly and ruthless warrior. When Ai injures her master in the heat of a training battle, Yoshizo demands that she kill him.Ai, angered and confused by this, flees the scene only to be assaulted by a group of samurai. Ai easily dispenses the samurai but the leader of the group, Kyuzaemon, takes her down. He exposes a birthmark on her wrist, a bizarre clue to her identity as a cursed child, confirming this is the girl he has been searching for.Ai tries to escape with no success. But Yoshizo makes a sudden return and forces Kyuzaemon to a deadly face off. Whoever wins the battle must then deal with Ai before her curse kills them both.Inspired by the great tradition of samurai cinema, Ai is an exploration of the era of the samurai and explores the themes of dormant fury for those who have lost loved ones and are driven to the point of madness with revenge.