13 ASSASSINS - Takashi Miike - 2010 Release
STARRING: KOJI YAKUSHO, TAKAYUKI YAMADA, HIROKI MATSUKATA, KAZUKI NAMIOKA
Jusannin no Shikaku - Cult director Takashi Miike delivers a bravado period action film in this re-make based on the 1963 movie.
In Feudal Japan the era of the samurai is waning, and sadistic young Lord Naritsugu rapes and kills at will. No one can touch him because he is the Shogun's younger brother and thus above the law. A senior government official realizes the situation will become even more dangerous after Naritsugu ascends to a higher political position, and thus a trusted samurai, Shinzaemon, is secretly hired to assassinate him.
Shinzaemon gathers eleven more samurai, and the dozen plan to ambush Naritsugu on his long journey home from Edo. Along the way they meet a hunter who claims to be of samurai lineage, and they adopt him as the thirteenth assassin. He in turn helps them find the village they have chosen for the battle. They take the village over and convert it into a labyrinthine of traps with many camouflaged fortifications.
But when Lord Naritsugu arrives, the assassins discover they are outnumbered even more heavily than originally expected; there are 200 guards, not seventy. Nonetheless they decide to continue with their mission.
2010 – JAPANESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES – COLOR – WIDESCREEN – 126 MIN.
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