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.

3-Iron review

 Number 229 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Korean/Japanese romantic drama '3-Iron.'

Tae-Suk (Jae-Hee) is a lonely drifter who spends his days breaking into people's homes when they're away, eating their food, washing their clothes, fixing their appliances and sleeping in their beds. One day he breaks into the home of Sun-hwa (Lee Seung-Yeon) - a house wife who is being abused by her husband Min-Gyu (Kwon Hyuk-ho.) After Tae-Suk witnesses this abuse in secret, he proceeds to buffet Min-Gyu with golf balls before leaving with his wife who soon joins him on his escapades.

In 3-Iron, I've seen one of the strangest, most intriguing yet subtly powerful films about human connection and communication. What makes the theme of communication even stranger is how there is so little verbal communication between Tae-Suk and Sun-hwa. Despite having minimal dialogue, the two soon start to fall in love. This use of silence was completely intentional by director Kim Ki-duk who wanted the audience to focus on the relationship of the characters without being distracted by dialogue. There is so much more in what we don't say rather than what we do. Ki-Duk captures this idea perfectly. 

It's a great concept. So much of human communication is more than the words we speak. There is our body language, our facial expressions - all those little sub-communications that nobody ever thinks about, but make up so much of how we convey meaning to one another.

However, I wonder if Ki-Duk could have pushed this idea even further. The film is only short at eighty-eight minutes. That's not even an hour-and-a-half. Its short runtime meant that some of the plot-points were rushed and contrived so they could fit in the big thematic ideas within ninety minutes. Let's take the first meeting of Tae-Suk and Sun-Hwa. Tae-Suk breaks into Sun-Hwa's home not realising that she is there too. He starts washing her clothes and fixing her bathroom scale. Meanwhile, she has spotted him there and, rather than confronting him or running and screaming for help, she watches him curiously.

After Tae-Suk beats Min-Gyu, Sun-Hwa leaves with him, no questions asked. Obviously she has to go with him for the plot to work, but it all happened too easily. I am no expert, but in many abusive relationships there is an element of Stockholm Syndrome. Despite being horrifically abused, the abusee still deeply loves their abuser. I thought Sun-Hwa would express distress at her husband being attacked or maybe she would try to stop Tae-Suk. At the very least, I thought she would be hesitant about leaving him, but that wasn't the case at all.

There are other plot points that were completely skipped over. When playing golf on a street corner, Tae-Suk inadvertently hits the golf ball into the head of a random passer-by. We see one shot of him wracked with guilt and then it's quickly onto the next plot point. Tae-Suk and Sun-Hwa are caught in the bed of one of the homeowners they've invaded. What happens next? Nothing negative, as we're rushing along. These could have been great moments of conflict and tension, but they weren't explored properly.

I did enjoy 3-Iron. It was intriguing and very creative, but it definitely needed longer than ninety minutes to explore its big thematic ideas.

Paprika review

Number 581 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Japanese animated sci-fi thriller Paprika.

Doctor Atsuko Chiba (Megumi Hayashibara) is a scientist working on the DC Mini - a device that allows her to view people's dreams. She uses this machine to help psychiatric patients by embracing her alter-ego of Paprika. One of these people is Detective Toshimi Konakawa (Akio Otsuka.) However, the DC Mini is then stolen by a dream terrorist.

This film was like if Christopher Nolan decided to make Inception as an anime. Surely, Paprika was as equally confusing and convoluted and complicated. I'm sure this was supposed to be the point, but I struggled in following the film. It jumped so often between dream and reality that I wasn't sure which was supposed to be which. And then when the dreams started bleeding through to the real world, all hope was lost for me. There's no denying it was a good concept though and the animation was great, but I really wasn't sure what I was supposed to be watching.

I think another problem was that Paprika felt very unfocussed. There weren't that many characters, but there also wasn't a clear protagonist. Paprika is supposed to be the main character - she is billed first in the credits, yet there was also considerable time spent on Detective Konakawa as well as other characters like Doctor Tokita who invented the DC Mini. It did give the film an uncertain tone. I also thought that the DC Mini was a strange name for a device like this. It kept make me thinking of a car that was made in the DC universe.

While slogging through this list, I have encountered many films that haven't personally been for me. I'm sure to anime-lovers this would be the 581st greatest film of all time. But I did not care for it at all.

IP man review

 Number 215 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2008 Hong-Kong biographical martial-arts film "IP Man."

Based on the true story of Ip Man, a former wing-chun master, this film follows his many exploits. Considered the number-one authority of his martial art, he is well-respected and has his own school in the city of Fushon. However, when the Japanese invade and occupy Hong Kong as part of the Sino-Japanese war, Ip Man (Donnie Yen) soon becomes a leader of a resistance movement.

I enjoyed this film a lot more than I thought I would. I thought it might be like Kung-Fu Hustle and be all style over substance. Sure it would be full of well-choregraphed martial art sequences, but there would be little in the way of story. I couldn't have been more wrong. There was a great storyline behind all of the spectacular kung fu sequences. And they were spectacular. Martial artist Sammo Hung and stunt coordinator Tony Leung Siu-hung worked together to create slick and entertaining fight scenes. But Donnie Yen is also to be applauded. In preparation for the role, he spent months training in Wing Chun and it really showed on screen. 

But like  Lust, Caution, I really enjoyed how Ip Man showed a part of the Second World War that people don't talk about as much in the Western world and that's the Sino-Japanese theatre. True, it did start separately from the war in Europe before eventually bleeding into WW2. Obviously, I'm not too clear on the history of it all, but it was so interesting seeing this other aspect of the war. The production element from the costume to the set design was brilliant. And this all was a perfect backdrop to the martial arts. Instead of over-shadowing or under-mining, the two elements came together very well. 

After the Japanese invade and occupy Hong Kong, Ip Man is forced to work in the coal mines to support his family. There he trains the other workers in Wing-Chun to protect against roving bandits. He also comes to the attention of the Japanese General Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) who is a karate master and has the Chinese martial artists fight against his Japanese cadets in a show of dominance. General Mirua wishes to break Chinese spirit by proving that Japanese martial arts are better than their Chinese equivalents. Ip Man eventually accepts his challenge and the two fight each other in a thrilling conclusion.

I also have to briefly mention Tenma Shibuya who played Colonel Sato, Miura's second-in-command. Despite looking no more threatening than a bank manager, he was a sadistic and psychotic maniac. Shibuya was great in the role.

Beyond this film, I don't really know anything about Ip Man and his exploits, but I think this film did him justice. However, most importantly, what I know now about Ip Man is that he went onto have many famous students: none more famous than Bruce Lee himself.