Review: Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins.

13 Assassins is a 2010 chanbara epic directed by Takashi Miike as a remake of Eiichi Kudo's 1963 film of the same name and features an ensemble cast lead by Koji Yakusho, and Goro Inagaki.

The film, set in 1844 when the Edo period was nearing it's end, follows older samurai Shinzaemon who is requested by Sir Doi to assassinate Naritsugu, the sadistic leader of the Akashi clan.

I'm a huge fan of Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei, Tsushima specifically is what got me into both samurai media and Japanese media as a whole way back in 2020, and in my search for the best samurai films out there (not including Kurosawa's films or Harakiri since they're on my watchlist) was one specific film. 13 Assassins. It showed up every time without fail.

And while I've usually researched and watched his many abundant mid-budget films like Sukiyaki Western Django and Zebraman I never actually watched one of his higher budget films like 13 Assassins.

It's a very beautiful film that builds up from a very tragic and disturbing beginning. I'm not one for the early career Miike and his gore-filled films and I know it barely scratches the surface of the lengths he can go to, but there were a good amount of scenes that made me want to look away from the screen in the first 5-10 minutes alone.

The beginning lays out from his first appearance that Naritsugu has not a single redeeming quality to his character. He's a sadistic psycho and the film makes it very clear in his first 5 minutes of screen-time through a flashback.

Every second this guy is on screen, it just hammers in that feeling of wanting him gone, you just feel a sort of hatred for this guy in you whenever he appears. The film knows this, Miike knows this, and you know this.

Doi tells Shinzaemon more and more of Naritsugu's atrocities for the next few minutes, it's honestly a hard watch even for me.

And while Naritsugu is immediately shown as the villain of all villains from the get-go, on the contrary the film introduces all 13 of the assassins and gives you time to enjoy their presence and pick a favorite to get attached to.

In the beginning my pick was Hirayama, a seemingly unstoppable ronin who was only more and more badass the longer he fought, but in the end my favorites ended up being Shinzaemon, his nephew and the hunter.

But from the initial 12 samurai being hired to roughly the 1:15 mark, is a slow 2nd act that builds up to the greatest thing an action fan like me could be met with.

A. 45. Minute. Action scene.

The entire third and final act of this film is just one long muddy, bloody, sweaty fight scene. It's the ultimate payoff. And despite the length of this one fight, it has enough well timed breaks between action to reel you back into the story and enough unique twists and turns to make sure you don't end up fatigued from watching the film.

And this is one of the film's greatest strengths, the action is saved just for this moment. They only show off one or two fights prior to this, but then they just hit you full force like a train.

Just action, action, action. I cannot hammer this in enough, it's just straight action.

But in the end, this film really made me feel hollow at the end, it had such a great ending to it and I really want you to watch this film. My only nit-picky complaint is I never got to see this film in black-and-white as it really feels like a modern version of old black-and-white samurai films like those of Akira Kurosawa.

If you like chanbara, Takashi Miike, or even just Ghost of Tsushima and want a film with similar combat. I would recommend this film greatly. It's one of Miike's best films.

That's all this time, Love and Peace!