Review: 13 Assassins

     Akira Kurosawa is widely considered one of the best film director's of all time. His attention to detail transformed post-war Japan into the feudal Japan of 100 years earlier. His classic samurai movies, Seven Samurai and Yojimbo are some of the best movies ever made and have been the inspiration for many Hollywood films, most notably The Magnificent Seven. Kurosawa was clearly being channeled during the production of 13 Assassins. Similar to the plot of Seven Samurai, we find a group of Samurai joining together to fight on the side of honor. 13 Assassins is an amazingly accurate portrayal of feudal Japan and the life of the samurai.

     Set in 1844, the end of Japan's medieval Edo period, 13 Assassins takes place during a time when true samurai warriors were becoming increasingly rare. The film ensnares the viewer immediately, opening with a man committing harakiri in protest of his cruel Lord Naritsugu. Naritsugu is a fantastic villain, so twisted in his ways, he transcends evil with his level of barbaric madness. He shoots arrows at innocent villagers, amputates his victims, and exercises his authority to rape whoever he pleases. Inexplicably, the shogun plans to promote Naritsugu and give him even more power despite his barbarism. To right this wrong, Sir Doi hires the samurai Shimada to assassinate Naritsugu. Shimada forms a team of a dozen other samurai. Some would otherwise be considered too young or too old, but with talented samurai being so rare, exceptions had to be made. Shimada carefully plans to assassinate Lord Naritsugu while he is traveling to his hometown from Edo. The assassin's are terribly outnumbered, expecting to face 70 other samurai fighting for Naritsugu. The assassins buyout a small town that they expect Naritsugu to travel through and lie in wait, only to find Naritsugu's loyal head samurai Hanbei was expecting them and marches into the village with 200 samurai. The fight that ensues lasts roughly 45 minutes, almost the entire final half of the film, and it's an awesome display of choreography and ingenuity.

     The only fault I could find with this film is that, unlike Seven Samurai, we don't get a lot of character development for most of the samurai. There's Shimada, his nephew, and old guy who's good with a spear, the young one, the badass, and the guy who lives in the forest. That leaves 7 of the 13 assassins who are left pretty much undefined, serving only to give the group numbers and show the group begin to weaken as each of them fall during battle. In Seven Samurai, each of the seven have a particular skill or specialty with a specific weapon, and each of them exist as separate characters. The half of the 13 assassins are essentially the same character. Otherwise this film is fantastic. It's mostly an action film, but it uses comedic relief, especially from the delightful Koyata, the man who lives in the forest. The end fight scene, again, is fantastic. Unlike most action films of today, the action is easy to follow. Instead of one big chaotic mess, the fight is organized into well choreographed vignettes. I was also pleased by the apparent lack of any digital effects, everything appears to have been done in camera, adding to the authenticity of the film. I highly recommend this film to fans of action films, samurais and/or Kurosawa.

Rating: 8.5/10 - Saintly