13 Assassins (2010)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

13 Assassins (2010) – T. Miike

Director Takashi Miike is famous for the sheer number of films he cranks out (17 more since this 2010 release) and their audacity … and cruelty (see, or don’t see, Audition, 1999).  Here, he takes on the classical jidai-geki, the feudal samurai picture, by remaking Eiichi Kudô’s 1963 film of the same name, owing a strong debt to Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, 1954, and all the films about men plotting an attack/heist/mission that followed in its footsteps.  An aging samurai, Shinzaemon Shimada (Kôji Yakusho) is asked to gather a group of samurai to assassinate an evil and sadistic lord.  After a series of scenes that set the stage, Shinzaemon prepares to attack the lord as he and his entourage pass through a tiny village en route to their feudal lands from Edo.  Unfortunately for Shinzaemon, an old friend/competitor now works for the evil lord and develops a strategy to foil the plan.  The result is an hour-long (more?) battle sequence featuring grungy and bloody hand-to-hand combat and a lot of things blowing up or crashing down that is a tour-de-force of production design and craftmanship.  Miike’s preference for leaving in the gore is perhaps somewhat toned down (although there are plenty of gruesome shots here and in the earlier recounting of the evil lord’s deeds that you might want to turn away from).  In some ways, the film becomes gruelling but for action buffs (or on the big screen?) it is likely exciting.  However, the characters aren’t quite uniquely defined (as each of the 13 meet their fates, I struggled to remember who they were) and the plot ends in “just so” fashion.  No surprises here.  Yakusho remains a charismatic actor throughout.  Miike went on to remake Kobayashi’s excellent Hara-Kiri (1962) the following year…in 3D.