13 Assassins review

 Number 676 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2010 Japanese samurai film '13 Assassins.'

Set at the end of the Edo period, the tyrannical Lord Naritsugu (Goro Inagaki) is set to be appointed to the Tokugawa Shogunate council. Realising the dangers that entails, the Shogun justice minister Sir Doi Toshitisura (Mikijiro Hira) enlists the help of experienced samurai Shimada Shinzaemon (Koji Yashuko) to assassinate Lord Naritsugu. Shinzaemon recruits twelve other samurai to help him in his mission.

13 Assassins hearkened back to the days of Akira Kurosawa and his wide range of samurai films. you had all the elements you would expect including deep philosophising, harikari and the Bushido code of honour. It also had one of the most despicable villains that I have ever seen on screen.

Whereas most other villains have one redeemable quality, Lord Naritsugu is evil through and through. he is a sexual sadist who revels in torturing his victims. He is also an absolute despot, determined to crush any resistance around him. Goro Inagaki did well in turning this pure evil into a believable character.

Although the film is confusing at first with the introduction of each of the titular thirteen assassins - it takes a while for things to get going, but when it does the film is enjoyable. That is, until the ending, which let down a good film.

*spoilers ahead*

The film's final forty-five minutes are an extended battle scene where the thirteen assassins take on Naritsugu's two hundred men. Realising they are hopelessly outnumbered, they buy a local town and booby-trap it in clever ways. They rig parts of the town with dynamite while also creating spring-loaded walls to trap the soldiers. Then the assassins rein arrows down upon them.

This was a clever way to even the odds so that it baffled me when Shinzaemon declares that they'll stop their cheap tricks and they would fight the remaining 130 soldiers hand-to-hand. You've already killed seventy of their soldiers. Why not kill another seventy or another hundred before you take on the rest by sword-fighting. It seems like a silly way to get yourself killed.

And that's exactly what happened here. Although the characters initially have ridiculous amounts of plot-armour, this wears away as the 13 assassins die one by one. It all seemed like an unnecessary way to cause conflict. The 13 assassins had the high ground, they had the winning advantage, and then they threw it all away.

The end sequence was also intense, non-stop, relentless action while it was all brilliantly choregraphed, it became tiresome after a while. I would have much preferred to see this sequence broken into two. There is an initial skirmish where the 13 Assassins attack Naritsugu, but he escapes, killing some of them in the process. They then regroup and attack him again achieving their mission. We definitely needed some breathing space rather than the never-ending sword play.

And can we just mention the thirteenth assassin - the hunter - Kiga Koyata. He takes a sword to the neck, seemingly dies, but miraculously comes back to life in the film's conclusion. He declares he's had worse wounds from hunting wild boars. Some have said he's immortal, others think he was a trickster deity while others thought he really had died and what we see was a hallucination. Either way, it was weird.

I've seen a few samurai/Akira Kurosawa films in my time. They certainly have their fanbase, but I won't be joining them anytime soon.