30 Countries Challenge // #17 - Japan

70 minutes into 13 Assassins and it seems to be plodding along at a fairly pedestrian pace. Then we are thrown into an action scene; it appears to be the climactic action scene. But hang on, there's still an hour left of the film, surely this isn't the big finale? But it is, and it lasts an hour. And it's amazing.

I don't know what happened in the production of this film, but I'm going to assume it was something along the lines of: "we've got some amazing ideas for action sequences, now think of a plot to somehow link it together." They sort of managed this; the story is standard samurai fare.…

I wouldn't call myself a Takashi Miike fan; of his many films there are only really two that I consider genuinely good and one of those is still inferior to the original (Audition and The Happiness of the Katakuris being the two films in question) so despite the great reviews 13 Assassins has been amassing it really wasn't a film high on my list of priorities.

However, for the most part, I really rather enjoyed this tale of a group of samurai defying their code to bring down a psychotic lord. And what a psychopath he is; to describe his acts would spoil some of the films best reveals but Miike does an effective job of making you in no…

30 Countries Challenge // #17 - Japan

70 minutes into 13 Assassins and it seems to be plodding along at a fairly pedestrian pace. Then we are thrown into an action scene; it appears to be the climactic action scene. But hang on, there's still an hour left of the film, surely this isn't the big finale? But it is, and it lasts an hour. And it's amazing.

I don't know what happened in the production of this film, but I'm going to assume it was something along the lines of: "we've got some amazing ideas for action sequences, now think of a plot to somehow link it together." They sort of managed this; the story is standard samurai fare.…

Director Takashi Miike has directed many films, and while he is most famous for his bizarre and violent visions that push the boundaries of censorship, he has a wide area of expertise. Here he gives us an epic historical look at the end of the samurai age.

The reigning shogun has a brother that is insane and psychopathic. Government officials know that everyone would be better off without him, but they can't just rush in and arrest him. So a secret plot is hatched whereby a group of assassins is given the mission to take him out.

The first 45 minutes is kind of hard to follow at times; there are a bunch of characters that are quickly introduced, and…

"Your samurai brawls are crazy fun."

I haven't seen every samurai movie since Kurosawa, but...13 Assassins has to be the best samurai movie since Kurosawa, right? It is a true epic, directed with precision by Takashi Miike, and one that will almost assuredly come to be viewed as a classic of its genre.

The film is shot in the classical style well-known to Kurosawa fans or samurai enthusiasts, patiently taking the time to bring the sheer evil of Lord Naritsugu to a simmer before unleashing 12 assassins (with one more added over the course of the journey) to dispatch him. Gorô Inagaki is horrifying as Naritsugu, and the cast of avenging samurai is strong across the board, with a particular…