13 Assassins – Blu-ray Review

The Film:

The death of the samurai wasn’t from Seppuku, but by gun powder. 13 Assassins is a tale about this aspect, in the dying era of the samurais. Large and intimate, the scale of the film extends far beyond our rag tag troupe of assassins, as it portrays the end of honor as well. As gunpowder became the weapon of choice over the sword, wars changed as men who carried the new weapons changed. All this deepness from the most controversial Japanese director working, Takashi Miike? Yep. 13 Assassins is beautifully directed, easily accessible, and instantly pleasing, but don’t ever forget this is a Takashi Miike film, as evident by a tongueless, limbless, man-made sex doll seen tragically in the early minutes.

Miike has always had his foot in the odd, and has also been considered a cult film director here in the Western world. True. Audition or something like Gozu are weird as they come. As mentioned, this man-made sex doll is a trademarked Miike vision, yet it actually serves a story purpose, and is the only “weird” Miike element in the film. A young lord is sadistically raping and killing at will, yet he’s the law. After a wrongfully accused lord commits suicide, a samurai is hired to assassinate this sick young lord. That sound simple, but it’s interwoven into a complex opening act that is quite talky and is slow going. Boring, yet like a train, 13 Assassins is just getting started.

With the plot thickening, Miike unleashes a gigantic and awe-inspiring 45-plus minute finale, that out-actions anything in recent memory. The action is furious, creative, and even at this length, never tires, never bores. Michael Bay should take notes. Miike uses that slow build-up for this payoff, and it’s not just the length of this sequence that impresses or the raging bulls on fire scene (it’s totally cool), but it’s the emotionality of the samurais involved that keep us glued to the screen. Miike finds these little moments in the action that strip away the slick allure of past samurai movies. Not all of the samurais are the best bad-asses Akira Kurosawa would’ve trained. They’re not perfect. One gets scared after killing his first man. Another freaks out as his sword gets stuck in the shoulder of a man, so he swings his fists violently and frantically to lodge the sword loose.

The action isn’t as violent as say, Miike’s Ichi the Killer, but these moments are rarely seen in a samurai film, make the characters real, the action even more violent than gushers of blood. Oh, there’s blood, but nothing sick. 13 Assassins is the most classical film in Miike’s career, as it’s a remake of a 1963 Eiichi Kudo film of the same name. Okay, cool, but that doesn’t stop Miike from delivering one of his most beautifully shot films of his career, as well as one of his best overall films. Miike at his most “mainstream” is still Miike, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Magnolia Pictures offers up a stellar HD presentation. The video is striking; rich textures, lush colors, and fine details, there’s nothing of fault here. The same can be said for the audio, which is a constant audio assault. Obviously, you get the American dub track, which is fine too, but should be avoided for the Japanese track.

Interview with director Takashi Miike: Miike has been known to be a little weird and quite in interviews, but he offers up some decent info on the film’s production, notably talking about the sound design and the ending.

Deleted Scenes, mostly cut for a quicker international cut, Trailers and the Digital Copy finish out the disc’s extras.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: