13 Assassins: Takashi Miike’s viscerally violent remake is full-throttle samurai mayhem

The Japanese film-maker doesn’t hold back in his rendition of the 1963 film, with an epic battle that remains one of the most impressive action scenes in history Within the first 20 minutes of Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins, there is brutal murder, ritual suicide and political corruption, all taking place in Edo period Japan. The film’s central villain, Lord Naritsugu – the Shogun’s half-brother, played with an almost ethereal detachment by Gorô Inagaki – has a taste for depravity that knows no bounds. At the beginning of the film, he slaughters the family of a local lord with such sadistic cruelty it pushes the justice minister, Sir Doi (Mikijirô Hira), into enlisting a samurai, Shinzaemon Shimada (Kōji Yakusho), to assassinate Naritsugu. Continue reading...