13 Assassins

Samurai fairness, where at the beginning two of them say they're going to fight at the end of the film, and half the film is a luxuriously filmed preparation for a battle that I have personally missed on screen for some time now. Miike is excellent, for example, in the way he introduces the villain and offers the synecdoche his villainy is terrifying and demonic. Thirteen Assassins has a truly old-world spirit, and blood and mud won't change that. It's a beautiful heroic epic about pride and devotion to the ideal, and I haven’t enjoyed an action movie this much in a long time. Woo and Chan can go bury themselves with shame, that's how you make a real rumble! (12/04/2010)

A Samurai genre movie “a body at each wave of the katana" style which benefits from its considerable (but successful) length, which heightens the viewer’s feeling of involvement with the thirteen assassins going to their death during the forty-five minute long “13 against 200" showdown. It’s a long time since we’ve seen such a well-made and genre-pure movie of a similar type, even though it brings nothing new. Otherwise, we see an almost unusually calm and normal Miike for a change. (07/05/2011)

The Japanese remake some of their older pieces, but in the case of Takashi Miike, I wasn't afraid it wouldn't be a very distinctive and strong remake. The basic story remains intact, but Miike added his gritty stylization where he doesn't unnecessarily show off... mostly. However, all the elements used here, especially violence, serve only to underscore how cruel the story is, or rather, how cruel some people can be. The shooting of a child with an arrow is truly terrifying, and in this case, Miike spares the audience from naturalism. However, Miike also ensured excellent period stylization. In this film, once again, I had the feeling that the destruction portrayed was real. It's nonsensical, but it has meaning, unlike Man of Steel. (02/14/2014)