13 Assassins

So here it is, my first foreign film. Being that I love Japan and Japanese culture, I of course chose a Japanese samurai film. And it was on Netflix...don't judge. 13 Assassins is a film about a group of both samurai and disgraced samurai band together to help take out an evil lord who massacres villages and basically tortures and kills people (including women and children) for fun. Sadly, I cannot comment to heavily on the quality of the actors chosen due to it being a foreign language film and my unfamiliarity with these actors and their previous works. However, they managed to portray the typical samurai film characters quite well compared to movies like Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. Action and/or fighting films are usually not my first pick when it comes to choosing movies to watch, but Asian dramas are generally disinteresting and too mushy for me. The cinematography and music score are very stereotypical for the most part but they both manage to not be bland. Takashi Miike, the director, took the typical aspects of a samurai film, trimmed the excess fat, and brought 13 Assassins down to what most people want to see in a samurai/action film. The special effects and action scenes are done very well and minimal CGI is used to maintain an air of realism. This is especially important when portraying feudal Japan. While 13 Assassins didn't receive a release in the United States, I feel that despite being subtitled, the film would actually perform decently in the American box offices. There are some disturbing sequences in the film, such as the scene where a woman who had her tongue and limbs removed meets with the main character, Shizaemon, to request help in defeating the evil lord. There are also many scenes with excess blood and violence, especially the stereotypical spurting blood shown when characters are murdered in samurai films. Overall, I would highly recommend this film if you are interested in viewing a Japanese film that isn't Seven Samurai or another Akira Kurosawa film.

Bottom Line: Rent It

Score: 8/10

Year: 2010
Director: Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer, Three...Extremes)
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya, Goro Inagaki
Rating: R