"Your samurai brawls are crazy fun!"
One of the joys of the prolific Takashi Miike is you never know which genre and tone he will unleash with each film. 13 Assassins plays the historical setting straight, with the director's trademark excesses here used to service the story in a serious way. It is very much a film of two halves; the steady scene-setting references Kurosawa in its masterful control of both camera and a mostly mature cast in the classic story-telling formation of the band of assassins with the aim of overthrowing the amoral Lord Naritsugu (a wonderfully cool and cruel performance by Goro Inagaki), leading to the extended 'death trap' village sequence where the all-out final confrontation is played out. Even though not all of the assassins' characters feel sufficiently differentiated, the high standard and sheer gravitas of performances gives the relentless fight scenes at the end some genuine emotional impact. The subtitling is frequently stiff and stilted, but to a large extent this could reflect the formality of the samurai. 13 Assassins is one of Takashi Miike's strongest works; whether you bought your ticket for the historical samurai story or the blood-and-guts battles, the director delivers a compelling film on both counts.
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