Dir: Takashi Miike, Japan, 2011, 125 mins
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya, Goro Inagaki, Masachika Ichimura
Review by Mark Byrnes
A remake of a little known 1963 jidaigeki (period drama) of the same name, 13 Assassins arrives on the back of much critical praise after being nominated for the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 2010. Indeed the film represents a career high point for its prolific director, Takashi Miike, who has to date directed over 80 theatrical, TV and straight-to-video films. Distinguishing himself among his peers in Asian cinema with such notoriously violent fare as Ichi the Killer, he has finally created a film that is more than the sum of its parts.
The time is feudal era Japan, 1844, and a long standing peace is threatened by the rise to power of the sadistic Lord Naritsugu (Goro Inagaki). Despite his indiscriminate violence, his status as the Shogun’s younger brother renders him untouchable. Outraged at this, a senior Shogun official secretly enlists the help of revered samurai Shinzaemon Shimada (Koji Yakusho), in a plan to assassinate Naritsugu. Hiring a group of skilled swordsmen, including his womanising nephew Shinrokuro (Takayuki Yamada), Shinzaemon intends to ambush Naritsugu en route from his annual trip. But he knows that he and his men will have to overcome a fearsome army led by Shinzaemon’s ruthless nemesis, Hanbei (Masachika Ichimura).
Echoing the giants of cinema’s past, namely Akira Kurosawa and Sam Peckinpah, this is filmmaking on a grand scale with ambition and ideas to spare. Recurring themes in Miike’s work such as redemption, honour and even reincarnation are explored as Shinzaemon and his dirty dozen reflect on their own motives for undertaking the suicide mission and their existence in a changing world. Even the perversely cruel Naritsugu – a stock Miike character if there ever was one – justifies his violent behaviour as preserving the natural order of the Shogun world. While these moments of introspection lend the film an existential feel and give the characters depth, it is the 40 odd minute climactic battle, where the assassins find themselves outnumbered fifteen to one, that delivers what is promised.
Avoiding the use of slow motion and choppy fast editing, Miike shoots the action in thrilling real-time fashion with some wonderful flourishes thrown in for good measure – a point of view shot capturing the final moments of one of the assassins comes to mind. Evoking Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, the unglamorous and violent nature of a real battle is satisfyingly depicted, a lesson that some modern action film makers could learn from. Despite this, Miike’s trademark mischievous sense of humour is never far away, even in moments of carnage.
Finally delivering on the promise he has shown in the past, Takashi Miike has fashioned a truly cinematic, thoughtful and entertaining film from humble samurai origins.
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