13 Assassins Review
An old-style Samurai movie learns new (brutal) tricks!
Director Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins has initial similarity to Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven. As in, a story of a small group of people, some honor-bound, some in it for money or action, doing a good act. In those classic movies, it was defending a village.
In 13 Assassins, it’s, as the name suggests, killing someone. Someone specifically being a sadistic Lord Naritsugu who is the brother of the Shogun. This Lord kills for pleasure and tortures routinely. When someone affected by his atrocities commits seppoku as a protest, the Shogun’s advisors is forced to act in a way that does not disobey the Shogun’s order for discretion and regains face for the Shogunate.
The answer to this puzzling problem is having Shinzaemon, an aged Samurai, kill Naritsugu. He agrees to it after seeing a girl whose limbs were sliced off by Naritsugu. He also agrees because he wishes to die an honorable death and this mission will certainly give him that.
With that task, 12 others join him, hence creating the 13 Assassins. All are named but only a few are developed throughout the film. But the one constant thread among the 13 Assassins, except for one particular addition, is that they are honor bound men. Even the one who requires payment up front seeks the honor of the quest and perhaps the death of it. The movie is about the meaning of the Samurai in an age of peace. And it is about violence. Extremely well directed, entertaining violence.
I’d say an entire hour of the movie is the titular 13 Assassins fighting against 200 retainers of the Lord Naritsugu in a brawl that takes place over a ‘City of Death.’ It’s a sight to behold. It’s bloody and visceral. The city is moving — they have constructed walls to come out and block the mini-army. And they have explosives positions in key places. It’s all setup to be a long, drawn out death trap.
And it doesn’t become tiresome during the extended fight as Hanbei, the Lord’s protector and rival to Shinzaemon, tries to salvage the fight while his Lord, a psychopath of sorts, has a cold appreciation for the battle. It gets to the point where he wants to bring back the age of war just to see more battles like the one he’s living. And this fuels the final clash between Shinzaemon and Hanbei, a duel over, well, life and death, but also about what a Samurai ought to do.
The conversation between Naritsugu and Shinzaemon is highlight for me as well. Actually, that final sequence is fantastic. The meaning of life and death or lack thereof of each is…very clearly expressed in the visual medium.
The actual ending is odd. I mean, it’s Rogue One-esque and then you think okay, that makes sense. This was going to end this way and it fits with the themes. But there’s a strange choice with a character. With their end or lack there of. It’s all setup to be this dark ending, with the character walking away after this intense battle, but it ends on this almost happy, comedic note. It feels out of place, but I think it works.
The whole movie really works. It has a suitable planning set up with important character establishments that leave you hungering for an action backed finale that does not fail to deliver. I totally recommend it for people that like movies about samurai or that want a final blood bath.
