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Critics Consensus: Takashi Miike's electric remake of Eiichi Kudo's 1963 period action film is a wild spectacle executed with killer, dizzying panache.
Critic Consensus: Takashi Miike's electric remake of Eiichi Kudo's 1963 period action film is a wild spectacle executed with killer, dizzying panache.
All Critics (125) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (119) | Rotten (6) | DVD (4)
Familiar though it may be, as samurai movies go, 13 Assassins" is a killer.
This slam-bang remake of a 1963 feature by Eichi Kudo builds slowly, accumulating characters and themes, then explodes into a prolonged and masterful battle sequence inside a deserted town.
One can pinpoint the exact moment when 13 Assassins transforms from vivid samurai drama to insane work of genius.
Though 13 Assassins' setup could stand some tightening, it's all necessary prelude to a spectacular, action-packed final hour where all hell breaks loose and the streets and rooftops flow with blood.
Does Guinness World Records have an entry for longest on-screen fight? If it doesn't, Takashi Miike's "13 Assassins" just set it. And if a record actually exists, Miike's film just broke it.
The dialectic about duty may not translate to a modern Western audience, but the savage sword-fighting is to die for.
You've seen this film before, many times.
It's a reverent throwback to the great 1950s-'60s Japanese samurai films, and it's done in neutral shades of gray and white and tan and black.
Miike has a unique way of making even this historical violence both gross and engrossing.
... Miike's work is impressive... [Full review in Spanish]
As this finale makes clear, Miike is well aware of the conventionality of "13 Assassins" and clearly is comfortable following and continuing its form.
... a superbly executed but straightforward men on a mission film where the increasingly outmoded ideals of duty and honor and meaning through sacrifice are at the heart of the matter.
I wish the film had taken some time to explore more the 13 assassins, at least to make us able to better distinguish them in the exhilarating final battle, but still Miike crafts a gorgeous and extremely intense samurai epic in the best tradition of the genre.
Super Reviewer
Beautiful and brutal, chock full of tragic meaning. Lord Naritsugu is possibly the most hateful villain I've met yet; he makes Joffrey Baratheon look like an amateur.
Even though it starts out slowly, the film only takes two gruesome scenes to establish the bad guy as monster. What follows is a lot of recruiting and planning by the 13 Ronin that decide to take him out. That's not particularly exciting but lays a perfect ground for a finale furioso. Once the showdown kicks into gear there is no rest for 45 minutes. It's also refreshing that there are no stylized fights defying gravity or logic, but realistic, bloody and dirty deaths. When the dust settles, the audience is almost as exhausted as the lone survivor. Then again there is quite another pleasant surprise, even if unrealistic one, in the end. A highlight of the genre.
Slick well done period flick. yes its subtitled, get over and enjoy an immensely good action movie.
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