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| Kôji Yakusho is Shinzaemon Shimada, a man driven to kill an evil lord he knows will bring about and age of endless cruelty in Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins |
There is a serious lack of Samurai films that I've seen. I can't claim to think this is a film worthy of Kurosawa fans because I've only seen a couple of his films. The source of 13 Assasins is kind of unexpected: The maestro of the horrific, Takashi Miike, a man who made one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen, Audition.
There is a moderate amount of gore in this film but the violence is cleverly paced by delivering the most unsettling images of cruelty at the beginning which inspires a journey for vengeance that has close to no graphic results until the movie's final thirty bloody minutes.
What's behind this carnage is a really good story about a group of Samurai who are so appalled by actions of a sadistic lord, they agree to dishonor their code of loyalty and stage an assassination on the lord as he travels.
This is a very entertaining piece of historical fiction and it isn't to be believed. It has a slight over-the-top edge one might expect from an American Western. That comparison is nothing new to Samurai flicks.
That's all I can really think to say about this movie. I thought it was awesome.
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