13 Assassins
13 ASSASSINS
Written by Daisuke Tengan
Directed by Takashi Miike
Starring Kôji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yûsuke Iseya
Edgy Japanese director Takashi Miike has had a controversial career, marked by an impressive output of films and a known penchant for straying far past the boundaries of tasteful on-screen violence. Miike is known in the western world for his 1999 horror film Audition, and for the harrowing, gratuitous visual assault that is Ichi The Killer. With his new film, 13 Assassins, Miike approaches a more traditional subject material than in previous outings, following the path of the samurai, and his tread never falters in this brutal and awesome film.
It is the end of the Edo period, and the years of Shogunate role are waning. A samurai commits seppuku (the act of honorable suicide) as protest against a grave injustice - the brother of the current shogun, the vicious Naritsugu (Gorô Inagaki), has been allowed to run amok, killing, maiming and raping at will in the full knowledge that no man will defy him. In secret, the Shogun's senior adviser seeks out retired samurai Shinzaemon (Kôji Yakusho) with a mission: to kill Lord Naritsugu, no matter what.
The film begins with a graphic suicide, and what follows is a chronicle of atrocity - from the start, we are spared no mercy from the gravity of Naritsugu's actions. From rape and mutilation to firing arrows at bound children, he has done every villainous deed to be done, and still yearns for more. There is no question: he must die, and the sooner the better. All the more reason to support Shinzaemon's elite assembly, not all of whom are battle-hardened samurai. One is only just reaching the end of his apprentice years and his adolescence, and the theatrical Kiga (the unlikely thirteenth assassin) is not even well trained (or human, if Wikipedia is to be believed)...
While there is much to be said for the careful building of Shinzaemon's plans and the characters that surround him, the core of Miike's film is the forty-five minute block of near ceaseless action when Naritsugu's hoard of over two hundred comes upon the trap laid by the thirteen. Once the katanas are drawn, they remain unsheathed for the remainder of the movie, spilling torrents of blood in one of the most unrelenting scenes of battle yet filmed. This is not shimmering, glorious combat where foes fall quickly and heroes remain spotless - it is bloody, filthy, and brutal, with casualties on both sides. There are glorious set pieces, though, and every moment of screen time given to master ronin Hirayama (Tsuyoshi Ihara) provokes gasps of awe.
In one towering moment, Naritsugu faces off against Shinzaemon. The cruel lord is dressed all in clean unsullied white, his expression aloof, with a touch of humour and a glint of sadism. His stance is composed and calm, his movement smooth. Across from him, the lead assassin, dressed in black and covered head to toe in grime and viscera, gracelessly wipes the blood from his blade using his elbow. If there is any more defining moment in this film, it goes unnoticed.
Standing as a blood-drenched modern equivalent to Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, there are not enough action movies like 13 Assassins. It is a wild and rapacious descent into the blood, sweat and honour that defined the Edo period at its end, and on top of that, it's an incredibly entertaining film with a masterful cast and inspiring stunts. Go and buy it now. Do it. For honour.
It is the end of the Edo period, and the years of Shogunate role are waning. A samurai commits seppuku (the act of honorable suicide) as protest against a grave injustice - the brother of the current shogun, the vicious Naritsugu (Gorô Inagaki), has been allowed to run amok, killing, maiming and raping at will in the full knowledge that no man will defy him. In secret, the Shogun's senior adviser seeks out retired samurai Shinzaemon (Kôji Yakusho) with a mission: to kill Lord Naritsugu, no matter what.
The film begins with a graphic suicide, and what follows is a chronicle of atrocity - from the start, we are spared no mercy from the gravity of Naritsugu's actions. From rape and mutilation to firing arrows at bound children, he has done every villainous deed to be done, and still yearns for more. There is no question: he must die, and the sooner the better. All the more reason to support Shinzaemon's elite assembly, not all of whom are battle-hardened samurai. One is only just reaching the end of his apprentice years and his adolescence, and the theatrical Kiga (the unlikely thirteenth assassin) is not even well trained (or human, if Wikipedia is to be believed)...
While there is much to be said for the careful building of Shinzaemon's plans and the characters that surround him, the core of Miike's film is the forty-five minute block of near ceaseless action when Naritsugu's hoard of over two hundred comes upon the trap laid by the thirteen. Once the katanas are drawn, they remain unsheathed for the remainder of the movie, spilling torrents of blood in one of the most unrelenting scenes of battle yet filmed. This is not shimmering, glorious combat where foes fall quickly and heroes remain spotless - it is bloody, filthy, and brutal, with casualties on both sides. There are glorious set pieces, though, and every moment of screen time given to master ronin Hirayama (Tsuyoshi Ihara) provokes gasps of awe.
In one towering moment, Naritsugu faces off against Shinzaemon. The cruel lord is dressed all in clean unsullied white, his expression aloof, with a touch of humour and a glint of sadism. His stance is composed and calm, his movement smooth. Across from him, the lead assassin, dressed in black and covered head to toe in grime and viscera, gracelessly wipes the blood from his blade using his elbow. If there is any more defining moment in this film, it goes unnoticed.
Standing as a blood-drenched modern equivalent to Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, there are not enough action movies like 13 Assassins. It is a wild and rapacious descent into the blood, sweat and honour that defined the Edo period at its end, and on top of that, it's an incredibly entertaining film with a masterful cast and inspiring stunts. Go and buy it now. Do it. For honour.
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