13 Assassins

Having developed a liking for foreign films I have been getting into martial arts flicks made under the Shaw Brothers and anything with Yuen Woo-Ping involved in it. Though I've also been looking at more modern films that have been released, outside the 'golden age of Kung Fu films'. 13 Assassins is one of the films I watched and I thought it deserved a mention.

As a large budget film I was surprised I hadn't heard of it earlier, especially if it had anything to do with the samurai; a film topic that still excites and interests me greatly. The film follows the plot of twelve samurai, lead by one named Shinzaemon, who come together to overthrow the shogun's sadistic younger brother - who will no doubt become even more terrible if he rises to further political status. The film progresses in a manner that is easy to follow.

The fight scene at the end was brilliant and I feel that this came down to the very subtle use of CGI effects; it is not the typical explosive Hollywood blockbuster which I think is what the initial appeal was. I was hoping the film would include noteworthy choreography and it lived up to my expectations.

It portrayed Japan in a far less pastoral way than other films, say - The Last Samurai, which despite also being one of my favourite films, still falls into the category of being a Hollywood epic. There is shock and awe distributed unevenly throughout the film to the effect that you never see it coming. The only thing I would touch upon is the lack of character development; we know little about them besides their names, ideologies, and we don't see those change. But it does connect with a few things I have come to like out of my films, and I say this from a filmmaker's and film appreciative perspective; a lot of blood, violence, fighting, and purpose. There is a mission or a quest for the characters to fulfill and we can only hope against the odds that they succeed, and set in a world far from a fairytale, there is no guarantee that the audience will have the gratification of seeing Lord Naritsugu.