· Runtime: 141 mins
· Directors: Takashi Miike
· Cast: Goro Inagaki, Ittoku Kishibe, Ken Mitsuishi, Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya
· Plot: 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.
Japanese maestro Takashi Miike hits the target in his epic recreation of a classic samurai showdown.
Over the past 10 years Takeshi Miike has established himself as one of the most prolific filmmakers in the world. Since his first global success, which came in the form of Audition in 1999, he has chalked up over 65 films. While it may be said that the majority of his productions flopped in comparison to his few great achievements, it is clear that whatever Miike sets his mind to stands above the crowd on a global scale.
Now with 13 Assassins, a remake of a 1963 classic of the same name, Miike is starting to hit notes unseen from the cult horror and art-house director. From the very core of this film; its battle sequences, its picturesque imagery and moral strength, it’s obvious that 13 Assassins is aspiring to an older age of samurai film - its ambition and scale drawing parallels with the likes of such behemoth works as Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) and Masaki Kobayashi’s Hara-kiri (1962).
The time is 1844, and the peace that has reigned for so long over feudal Japan is threatened by a young Lord's bloody rise to power. Sadistic, violent and above the law, the Lord Naritsugu is half-brother to the Shogun, and believing all inferior classes to exist only at his whim, rapes and kills as he pleases. Gravely concerned with the young Lords violence, the Shogun’s own ministers secretly conspire to have him assassinated before he brings the whole empire to ruin.
Played by Goro Inagaki, who injects the character with a soft-spoken and quietly psychopathic persona, Naritsugu is a monster rivalling any of the violent killers in Miike’s previous works. To show this, Miike reverts to the shocking gore-merchant ways we are used to, unleashing his dark imagination in two early sequences. The first of these is a scene in which a naked girl is brought before the great samurai Shinzaemon (played by renowned actor Koji Yakusho); Naritsugu has had her arms and legs cut off because her father was "a peasant leader." Later, miffed at another nobleman who has contemptuously committed hara-kiri (ritual suicide); he has his wife and children tied up before shooting arrows into them.
Shinzaemon’s anger and righteous pride burn at witnessing these atrocities, and when summoned to the task of assassinating Naritsugu, the retired samurai swiftly assembles the 13 assassins and plans the attack on the murderous Lord.
The first hour of the film is a complex run-up of politics and initial character development that effectively sets the stage. The scenes are shot beautifully, and the slow-tempo transitions gradually hint at a brooding storm in the narrative.
For Western audiences it may take a while to work out who’s who among the key characters. Gradually, however, important players soon come into focus. There is the young fighting genius, Hirayama (Tsuyoshi Ihara); the explosives experts Horii (Kôen Kondô) and Higuchi (Yûma Ishigaki); Shinzaemon’s playboy nephew, Shinrouko (Takayuki Yamada); and Koyata (Yûsuke Iseya), a forest hunter the assassins pick up along the way and the only character to add a slight sense of comic relief to the picture. In both outcast status and his comic wit, Koyata can be seen as a direct link to both Toshiro Mifune’s Kikuchiyo and Minoru Chiaki’s Heihachi Hayashida in Seven Samurai.
The second half gradually ups the tempo towards the final crescendo, which is almost all pitched warfare. Stationing themselves at a village and hiding in wait for the travelling Lord, the 13 assassins are greeted by Naritsugu and his deadly bodyguards.
The films finale: 45 minutes of fabulously directed and choreographed violence and bloodshed with the assassins facing off against Lord Naritsugu’s 200-strong army. The action is intense, inventive and vastly compelling with enough twists and turns to keep the attention throughout.
Although suffering from a slightly drawn out middle section, the plot is gripping and well delivered. The films climax makes up for any shortcomings, and gratefully lacks the CGI overload that is currently inundating the market. The effect is a raw and brutal bloodbath, worthy of any samurai-slasher epic.
The runtime of 13 Assassins is more than an hour shorter than that of Seven Samurai. Although having less room for the brilliant character interaction or comic elements that define the great Kurosawa epic, the film masterfully accommodates the attention span of the audience, and in most respects is filmed in a traditional style that Kurosawa would recognise, if not necessarily applaud.
As the film progresses, however, the directorial transition switches from the old-school classic Chanbara style of the Kurosawa and Kobayashi greats, to a more chaotic, hand-held style of camerawork. By the end of the film the cinematographic devices appear more modern than the classics the film is modelled on. It seems Miike was reflecting the social transitions of the time through the use of this transition in the film:
“Near the end of the feudal era Japan was in a state of peace,” he explains. “The samurai had a certain way of life that was defined and more peaceful. The film reflects the idea that this peace cannot be maintained for too long - that politicians weren’t able to maintain it. Within only a hundred years the samurai class was dispersed, and the West moved in, and the quickened pace of history is reflected in this film.”
This intention shines through every moment of the films action-packed finale. With the crescendo at its peak, and the planned slaughter in full effect, Miike offers a strong sense that we’re witnessing first-hand the twilight of the samurai and the way of life that goes with it.
“The most important thing when making a remake of a movie is to respect how the original movie was made and be influenced by that, and have a love for the movie itself,” explains Miike. “You find a real sense of freedom by being honest with yourself and paying respect to the people who made the movie. When you show this respect and love for the original you have some freedom in how you recreate it.”
This level of respect caused Miike to view the original script as an integral part of his production process. Not wanting to veer too far from the central style of the Eiichi Kudo's 1963 black-and-white epic, he made changes only where he believed they naturally felt right. Miike’s value in traditional film techniques has inspired this remake - his intention being to recreate the classic Chanbara film of his childhood.
“Older Japanese films have much more energy and are much more interesting than the films that are currently being made now,” Miike Explains. “Japan as a nation has improved technically but in terms of cinema Japan has lost a lot of things over the years. I believe that if we try to make a movie the way they used to be made we might gain something.”
From a director seemingly more accustomed to sadistic violence and controversial shock-factor visuals, shown in his scream-and-scream-again horror films like Audition and Ichi the Killer, the emotional and strikingly moral aspects of 13 Assassins stand in stark contrast to the gore-fests that Miike is famous for. This ambitious and nostalgic production fully highlights the respect Miike has for the classics. But, as ever, Miike is sure to emphasise the fact that the film was not a chance to express himself personally, or put his own stamp on the genre:
“I have never sought to impose my personality on a film. My philosophy as a director has always been to set aside my ego and just enjoy making the film.”
Miike’s follow-up to 13 Assassins, another samurai movie, is in competition at this year's Cannes film festival. It seems the process has ignited something previously unfound in the slightly madcap director. 13 Assassins is Miike’s most mature and accomplished work to date. His competence and skill was always known, but it seems that Miike has evolved in his storytelling ability, transcending the strange and grotesque cult icon he became in the 90’s.
“I may be chasing a dream that I might never accomplish.” says Miike. “I find creative freedom through low budget projects. I seek out even more freedom through the experiences of making films like 13 Assassins. And I think it’s about time to go wild once again.”
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