2010 ‘十三人の刺客’ Directed by Takashi Miike
A bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future.
Koji Yakusho Takayuki Yamada Yûsuke Iseya Goro Inagaki Kazue Fukiishi Hiroki Matsukata Tsuyoshi Ihara Ikki Sawamura Arata Furuta Sousuke Takaoka Seiji Rokkaku Kazuki Namioka Koen Kondo Yuma Ishigaki Masataka Kubota Masachika Ichimura Matsumoto Hakuō II Seiyo Uchino Ken Mitsuishi Ittoku Kishibe Mikijiro Hira Mitsuki Tanimura Takumi Saitoh Shinnosuke Abe Meguru Katô Kazutoshi Yokoyama Megumi Kagurazaka
Jûsan-nin no shikaku, Thirteen Assassins, Trece asesinos, 殊死血战, Jūsannin no Shikaku, 13인의 자객, 13 asesinos, 13 убийци, 13 samurajů, 13 Δολοφόνοι, 13 Asesinos, 13 מתנקשים, 13 bérgyilkos, 13 assassini, 13 žudikų, 13 Zabójców, 13 Assassinos, 13 asasini, 13 убийц, 13 morilcev, สิบสามดาบวีรบุรุษ, 13. Suikastçi, 13 убивць, 13 Thích Khách, 十三刺客, 13人刺客：殊死血戰
UK15
Italy
Japan
Netherlands16
USAR
Germany16
South Korea18
Spain
AustraliaMA15+
FranceU
Brazil16
UK15
Czechia
Australia
Brazil
Czechia
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
South Korea
Spain
UK
USA
Total massacre.
Takashi Miike is a weird fellow. Obviously I've never met him in person, but he struck me as a man who would wake his wife up at 2 in the morning to announce that he's going to make a film about a man fighting crime while dressed up as a zebra. Then he would drink two shots of espresso and start working on the script right away.
This is how I'd imagine the life of a director who makes at least two films per year, even at the age of 50, is like. Sure, he had more misses than hits. (I base this statement on reviews by other people. I myself is still unfamiliar with Miike's works.) But…
The question is: 'Can a slow, plodding, pedantic and predictable first 75 minutes with lots of shouting in Japanese be compensated by one of the most riveting, beautifully choreographed, perfectly paced final battles that lasts 45 minutes with lots of shouting in Japanese?'
Well, not quite, but it's pretty close!
In this one....a group of 13 assassins come together for a suicide mission to kill a very evil lord. This is an excellent movie. The old saying is.....your movie is only as good as the villain. 13 Assassins presents one of the most evil movie characters ever. The bad guy in this, thinks nothing of raping women, killing children, torturing people and thinks starting a "new age of war" would be fun. By the end of the first 10 minutes you will feel ready to help take this guy down!
First half of the movie is a cat and mouse game between the assassins and the evil Lord. The second half of the movie is the showdown in a small…
Takashi Miike is an action carnage specialist, as shown in his frequently excessive movies. He draws from too many sources, utilises too many techniques, and makes too many films. Yet somehow his work is restrained and relatively consistent, perhaps because he knows how to match his reverence for old films with his modern, unashamedly violent taste. 13 Assassins is Miike's samurai classic, a remake of a 1960s film and one that doesn't succumb to the biggest problems of modern action films.
Obviously the king of samurai movies is Akira Kurosawa, and it's worth noting the ways in which Miike embodies Kurosawa in 13 Assassins (and his other films). Kurosawa's samurai movies are blunt and simplistic, and only arthouse in the sense that…
"Our quality outshines our quantity" -Shinzaemon,
- 5x5 Directors Challenge 3 (Takashi Miike 2/5): boxd.it/7ALXq
Slow...slow...slow... CHAOS!!!!!
13 samurai are assembled together to fight an evil lord who is going to send the whole world into war... I love it because it's awesome. Give me that long hour and fifteen minute slow paced set up followed by 40 minutes of fighting madness any day of the week and I'll consume it whole. I love the homages to old samurai films mixed with Miike's controlled mania. All of the performances are heartfelt and badass at the same time. This is great.
The first 75 minutes or so is a slow paced pretense leading up to the most visceral, excessive and all round incredible battle sequence of all time. Probably. (Has anyone actually done a body count on that last fight bc I swear people have got to be getting killed twice for those numbers to add up)
I’ve never considered myself a Takashi Miike fan, but he really outdid himself with 13 Assassins.
This was an amazing love letter to Kurosawa and the age of Samurai films. I got seriously nostalgic of my days of discovering films like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo/Sanjuro, and Ran for the first time. This feels as authentic of a samurai film as something to come out decades ago.
The cinematography and set pieces are absolutely fantastic. The movie looks absolutely stunning from start to finish. The story is engaging and the pace albeit slow, is hypnotic and hard to turn away from. The characters and acting are extremely engaging. And oh boy, does this movie kick ass when it’s time for the action.…
Although this samurai bloodbath runs a little longer than it should have in my opinion, it is also the best film that Japanese legendary filmmaker & one of world cinema's most prolific directors, Takashi Miike, has made in his highly controversial career, so far. 13 Assassins tells the story of 13 samurai warriors who come together for a suicide mission in order to kill an evil & ruthless lord. Beginning on a slow note, this slasher picks its pace really well in the second half and ultimately culminates on a rousing high with blood splattered all over the screen.
Impressive enough to be ranked as arguably the finest samurai film in recent times, this period drama also pays homage to Akira Kurosawa's…
Shogunate Fantasy League Throwdown:
Who wins - 7 Samurai, 47 Ronin or 13 Assassins?
Trick question, the answer is always Tom "The Last Samurai" Cruise, who annihilates all comers with his OT VII superpowers.
How hard is it to assassinate a single person in 1840s Japan that you have to home alone a whole town
68/100
[originally written on my blog]
Thirteen is just too many. Marveled again at the brisk economy of the extended final setpiece—a seeming contradiction in terms, and wholly unexpected given Miike's general tendency toward slapdash construction—but this time I was far more conscious of how completely anonymous most of the wreckin' crew are, even though half of the movie amounts to slow prelude. It's not so much that the buildup is pokey, as many charge, but that it emphasizes the wrong things; Yakusho goes around enlisting folks but never tests anybody, never experiences doubt or fear. It's more like ticking items off a checklist: badass ronin, nervous youngster, jovial fat dude, Mifune wannabe, etc. Consequently, it doesn't mean anything when…
