13 Assassins

13 Assassins


Let's start off with something that is fresh in my mind. I just saw 13 Assassins with a couple of friends this past Sunday. There has been a lot of buzz about the film since it started making the festival runs. This isn't surprising considering it's director is Tikashi "Audition" Miike. Now let's get one thing out of the way: I have only seen one Miike film, "Sukiyaki Western Django" (which I will probably write about soon). I have not seen "Ichi The Killer", or "Audition". Although I have heard they are both suitably fucked up.

After Django, I kind of went into this film expecting a very slow burn, a build up to a final climactic event. And thinking about it now, that is kind of what I got, albeit in proportions than I ever thought possible. This movie is literally split in half.

First half: Character and motivations are set up
Second half: Dismemberment/disembowelment of various kinds

The introduction of the film is actually its most powerful scene which depicts a Samurai performing seppuku. Oddly enough this is the most gut wrenching (!) scene in the film, and Miike handles it with a reverence and grace that such an act deserves. The shot it an unmoving, steady framing of the mans upper torso as he slowly and deliberately locates the correct spot on his stomach and slices himself open. It was mesmerizing, revolting and inspiring all at the same time. It was then that Miike had my complete and undivided attention. What follows is a bit of political drama and a classic banding together of men who recognize that something must be done about a seemingly bat-shit insane up and coming lord named Naritsugu. The first half of the film is the band planning the lord's assassination. The second half of the film is the execution of that planning.

The weakest link in this film is the antagonist. Naritsugu is a real asshole, there is no doubting that. Doesn't that make you hate him, and in turn, doesn't that make him a good bad-man? Not quite. This guy is SO evil, for reasons that are completely unclear, that you can't help but think the makers of the film could have replaced his scenes with a bill-board of the atrocities he has committed instead of actually having the character in the film. The film-makers are simply TELLING you he is evil.

Here is an evil man.
Here are the evil things he has done:
- Chopped off a woman's arms and feet and ripped out her tongue
- Raped a man's wife and subsequently killed her husband

He may have also killed the man's wife, but I don't remember. The fact I cannot remember is telling. I don't remember because in the end, I didn't care. Whenever he showed up on screen, I was simply waiting for another unspeakable atrocity to be committed by this prick and the scene to cut back to the infinitely more interesting characters in the film (anyone else). His shifty eyes and random acts of vicious violence made me think that this man would just up and rape anything in any scene he was in. He is THAT evil. So much so, that the character was nicknamed "Rapey Eyes" during the course of the film.

Rapey Eyes: I hate you because I was told too.  

But, in the end we get the message: He is a bad man, and he must be raped stopped.

That's where our protagonists come in, who are a colorful, if slightly clichéd group of individuals who take it upon themselves to take this asshole out. They are a mix of lovable rogues, money loving scoundrels, inexperienced youngsters and honorable leaders. Their interactions with each other and with Rapey Eyes' captain of the guard were believable. That being said, the characters have arcs that we have all seen before: the captain of the guard who wrestles with the realization that his Lord is psychotic, the showdown between friends, the youngster who is experiencing killing for the first time. These cliche's are depicted competently and are assisted by what I feel are two of the films strongest attributes: location and time period. I found the depictions of samurai culture quite arresting, and the  arc of the characters suddenly weren't clichéd. They fit. You can feel the strength of samurai code, good or bad, seething from the film as it goes. So effective was this depiction of samurai culture that I did not second guess any of their motivations. Gutting yourself in protest of serving a man you felt was evil seemed to be common sense. It all seemed to fall into place. Well, except one part... I will get to that.

One scene in particular during the first half stood out for me, which involved the dismembered woman. Miike films this with delicacy, not reveling in the woman's pain, but delivering a visual I won't soon forget. The mournful cry of the woman near the end of the scene gave me goosebumps. And the lead samurai's reaction to that scream of pain? A smirk. Literally. Maybe I need to watch it again, but I swear, the man smiles to himself immediately after the woman wails. Why? Because he has been looking for a reason to die honorably, and with the advent of the acts committed by Lord Rapey Eyes, has found a noble cause to do just that. He is so happy about this, he SMILES. Anyone can see that this may be considered an dick move. But, I understood why he would. So much is this movie steeped in Samurai code, that although I took note of his completely insensitive reaction, I believed that his smile was justified given his reasoning. The film has a strong sense of location and culture that it fully takes advantage of to great effect.

Alright, let's get into the second half of the film. The seemingly overcomplicated assassination attempt becomes a 200 on 13 orgy of violence. Miike is surprisingly adept at depicting action. I was very impressed with how the scenes were shot, and more importantly, how they were edited. For each individual fight, I understood where the combatants were, and how what they were doing was effecting their surroundings and each other. That is saying a lot in an age of films where hyper-editing can take a huge smelly shit on a well-covered, well-shot action scene. The strongest element of the scenes, and something I admire about great actions scenes in general is that these bastards are actually trying to kill each other. Watch the sword fighting in this closely, you will notice that no fight is a 10 minute swashbuckling/dancing-with-the-stars epic. They are exactly the opposite. Fast, hard and brutal. 3 or four strikes at most and someone is down. The ferocity of which the protagonists swing their swords makes you believe they could take 200 men. The sound design is also great, if not a bit over the top. I mean, how much noise does slashing or stabbing someone really make? The sound for slashing and stabbing in this is definitely amped up to increase the impact of the fights, but it gets to the point where the sound production was nearing light-saber levels of sonic-overload.

There are some times when I actually felt sorry for the lord's guards. These 13 Assassins were just decimating their army. Great shots of extremely nimble samurai running from roof to roof, climbing ladders, leaping into crowds of enemies and annihilating them. The energy with which Miike has put together this final incredibly long action scene kept me engaged without boring me. But one scene really had me scratching my head.

I had said I would talk about a scene in which not even the location and culture of the film could explain. After herding the Lord's army into their death trap, they begin to kill many guards from the rooftops via an arrow storm and well-planted explosives. Smart. Can never be too careful when its 13 on 200. After they have reduced the guard numbers significantly, they.... voluntarily throw their bows away and proceed to engage the army in sword to sword combat.

...

They have spent most of the movie despairing over the size of the Lord's army. Logic has been something that the film had stuck to up until this point. Although the whole assasination scheme was a little contrived, it was a very politically fueled environment, and that sort eliminates the direct approach. At least the film convinced me of that. But this scene left me with a big "what the fuck!?" moment. It is inconceivable that they would give up their incredible advantage of higher ground and projectiles for close quarters combat.

You really could have just arrowed this asshole in the chest...

Other than that minor slip in logic, I found the action portion of the film to be a well shot, well edited high energy example of good action film-making. This will look and sound incredible on Blu-Ray.

Just a word on the add campaign: I really enjoyed the posters for this film. Particularly the poster used to introduce the post, and the following one:

Fantastic little piece...

No floating heads + Full figured forms + Embracing the setting and landscape = Great poster campaign.

Despite some lapses in logic and a shallow antagonist, I found 13 Assassins to be an enjoyable film. It is a tried tested and true formula, which by making excellent use of it's setting, transcends the average men-on-a-mission film to deliver something energetic and engaging.