No one who has seen Seven Samurai or any top-rate samurai flick will be surprised by the trajectory and outcome of Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't plenty of surprises and enormous thrills to be found within. This story of a group of devoted samurai accepting a secret assignment to assassinate the Shogun's brother, a sadistic lord set to lead Japan into a new age of war, could be called nearly scene for scene leading up to its pull-out-all-the-stops hour-long final confrontation. Such is the notorious Miike's prowess as a director, however, that he continually makes this old-fashioned fable feel fresh, whether through his framing or his signature perversity.
That perversity, in the case of 13 Assassins, is tempered, resulting in a sober, exceedingly well-made action film, replete with hara-kiri, epic sword fights and plenty of speeches about the nature of honor and the utter pointlessness of being a samurai. This is not to say that when Shinzaemon (the great Koji Yakusho), the leader tapped to assemble the eponymous posse, comes face to face with the limbless, starved sex slave of the savage Lord Naritsugu (an effectively cold Goro Inagaki) you can't see Wild Man Miike behind the camera with a wicked smile. The image of this tortured woman only compounds Shinzaemon's revived sense of duty, spurred by a story of a fellow samurai's son and daughter-in-law being shamed and slayed by Naritsugu. He awaits a showdown with his old classmate, Hanbei (Masachika Ichimura), Naritsugu's head samurai, but he must assemble a team to assure Naritsugu's death and the death of his 200 bodyguards.
Old friends, students, and colleagues are brought in to form the titular gang, rounded out by Shinzaemon's drunk nephew (Takayuki Yamada) and a forest-dwelling would-be bandit (Yusuke Iseya). The stage is set for a bloodbath as Naritsugu leads his small army into a small town, abandoned by its residents and fitted with a series of traps and explosives to ensure a veritable massacre. Miike takes his time leading up to the showdown, continuously tipping his sedge hat to Kurosawa. But once the 40-minute-plus battle begins, there is nary a moment where Miike's abilities as a director aren't working at full-throttle. The heroes, having long ago accepted death as inevitable and honorable, fight until they can no longer move, and the director takes great pleasure while indulging in long sword fights and even longer death rattles.
It is not enough to say that this is Miike's best movie since 2003's deliriously perverse Gozu, for that would shortchange the great restraint and undiluted artistry that Miike exudes here. 13 Assassins is something like the prolific helmer's You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger: Whereas Woody Allen's woefully underrated comedy showed the filmmaker embracing and even rewarding the faithful ones he so mercilessly judged before, 13 Assassins gives Miike a chance to show some respect to the codes of honor he has so regularly subverted throughout his career. Shinzaemon may call samurai life "a burden" and Iseya's leaping lunatic constantly makes clear his disdain for "arrogant" samurais, but collaborating once again with Audition scribe Daisuke Tengan, Miike achieves a balance here between revering the samurai way of life and critiquing its absurdities.
As much as it is well-acted, smartly directed and sturdily written, 13 Assassins is also one of Miike's most visually arresting films, though he has never wanted for an imaginative eye. Kudos are in order for DP Nobuyasu Kita and editor Kenji Yamashita, who work with Miike to keep the film both even-paced and visually engaging. But such excellent touches as Naritsugu's once-pristine face being covered in blood, dirt, and black mud towards the end of the movie to render him a monstrous visage, exposing the horrid coward that was squealing beneath his perceived calm, is patented Miike. The image of Naritsugu carelessly kicking the head of one of his top bodyguards around is also classic Miike, but whereas said image would have been a marginally gruesome moment in the filmmaker's past works, the action here carries the full weight of dishonor and is met with a quick and requisite punishment.
AKA Jûsan-nin no shikaku
That perversity, in the case of 13 Assassins, is tempered, resulting in a sober, exceedingly well-made action film, replete with hara-kiri, epic sword fights and plenty of speeches about the nature of honor and the utter pointlessness of being a samurai. This is not to say that when Shinzaemon (the great Koji Yakusho), the leader tapped to assemble the eponymous posse, comes face to face with the limbless, starved sex slave of the savage Lord Naritsugu (an effectively cold Goro Inagaki) you can't see Wild Man Miike behind the camera with a wicked smile. The image of this tortured woman only compounds Shinzaemon's revived sense of duty, spurred by a story of a fellow samurai's son and daughter-in-law being shamed and slayed by Naritsugu. He awaits a showdown with his old classmate, Hanbei (Masachika Ichimura), Naritsugu's head samurai, but he must assemble a team to assure Naritsugu's death and the death of his 200 bodyguards.
Old friends, students, and colleagues are brought in to form the titular gang, rounded out by Shinzaemon's drunk nephew (Takayuki Yamada) and a forest-dwelling would-be bandit (Yusuke Iseya). The stage is set for a bloodbath as Naritsugu leads his small army into a small town, abandoned by its residents and fitted with a series of traps and explosives to ensure a veritable massacre. Miike takes his time leading up to the showdown, continuously tipping his sedge hat to Kurosawa. But once the 40-minute-plus battle begins, there is nary a moment where Miike's abilities as a director aren't working at full-throttle. The heroes, having long ago accepted death as inevitable and honorable, fight until they can no longer move, and the director takes great pleasure while indulging in long sword fights and even longer death rattles.
It is not enough to say that this is Miike's best movie since 2003's deliriously perverse Gozu, for that would shortchange the great restraint and undiluted artistry that Miike exudes here. 13 Assassins is something like the prolific helmer's You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger: Whereas Woody Allen's woefully underrated comedy showed the filmmaker embracing and even rewarding the faithful ones he so mercilessly judged before, 13 Assassins gives Miike a chance to show some respect to the codes of honor he has so regularly subverted throughout his career. Shinzaemon may call samurai life "a burden" and Iseya's leaping lunatic constantly makes clear his disdain for "arrogant" samurais, but collaborating once again with Audition scribe Daisuke Tengan, Miike achieves a balance here between revering the samurai way of life and critiquing its absurdities.
As much as it is well-acted, smartly directed and sturdily written, 13 Assassins is also one of Miike's most visually arresting films, though he has never wanted for an imaginative eye. Kudos are in order for DP Nobuyasu Kita and editor Kenji Yamashita, who work with Miike to keep the film both even-paced and visually engaging. But such excellent touches as Naritsugu's once-pristine face being covered in blood, dirt, and black mud towards the end of the movie to render him a monstrous visage, exposing the horrid coward that was squealing beneath his perceived calm, is patented Miike. The image of Naritsugu carelessly kicking the head of one of his top bodyguards around is also classic Miike, but whereas said image would have been a marginally gruesome moment in the filmmaker's past works, the action here carries the full weight of dishonor and is met with a quick and requisite punishment.
AKA Jûsan-nin no shikaku
