On October 1, the adventure action drama "Amura" starring Alena Mikhailova and Yuri Kolokolnikov premieres on the KION online cinema. About the exoticism seen in the first episodes for domestic projects – in our article.

Far East. A fragile-looking girl like the ruler of Westeros works part-time at a seaport. She is focused and silent. She doesn't respond to her colleagues' flirting. The thing is, in the evening she has to step into the ring for a mixed martial arts fight. And she is offered money to throw that fight.

But this is far from the only, and not even the main, problem for Anna, known under the pseudonym "Amura" (Alena Mikhailova). She receives a message from her twin sister Nadya, who recently left for Japan. From this message, it becomes clear that she is in trouble, and only her fighting sister from Russia can save her, with the help of her ex-boyfriend (Yuri Kolokolnikov).

The series "Amura" deftly picks up on the global trend for everything Japanese (not long ago, "Shogun", "Tokyo Vice", "Sunny" were all the rage). And for extra authenticity, elements of manga and anime are woven into the project – not only in the credits but also in episodes that tell the sisters' backstory. It's great that for realism, part of the filming actually took place in Asia with foreign actors, an international team of experts worked on the action and stunts, and a real manga adaptation is being released alongside the series.

The directors are Andrey Dzhunkovsky and Ilya Ovsenev, the duo that gave us one of the best projects of last year – the series "Alice's Dreams." From there, the tough Ekaterina Vilkova moved to "Amura," along with a pleasant visual style. No wonder, since Ovsenev is primarily a cinematographer. Apart from the animation inserts, the visuals stereotypically but not unreasonably feature neon shades, immersing you in the atmosphere of urban Japan.

Traditional Japan is represented here by the yakuza, since it's hard to imagine a series about the Land of the Rising Sun without a criminal side, and why would you?! So already in the debut episodes, there will be shootouts, chases, and severed tongues mixed with jokes about missing fingers as a distinguishing mark of the mafia. The yakuza roles are played by Japanese actors — Yuta Koga, Izumi Sano, Ken Takigawa, and Kenzo Shirahama. So there's no problem with authenticity.

In addition to the dynamics and the exotic setting for Russian cinema, it's interesting to watch Alena Mikhailova's new performance. The actress, who traditionally portrays if not victims, then weak heroines in every respect, this time not only "split" but in one of the roles plays the complete opposite of her filmography – she takes her fate into her own hands, even if those hands have to clean a few yakuza faces. It looks a bit strange, unusual, and not 100% convincing, but there's something to it. We'll keep watching.

Trailer: