Review of 13 Assassins (2010) by David B — 03 May 2013

This is that truly rara avis, a remake of an established, admired piece of cinema that blunders not into cheap pastiche or outright travesty, but instead equals - and in some respects exceeds - its eponymous antecedent. More surprising still is the fact that it is Miike, a veritable svengali of Japanese torture porn, who has achieved this notable feat, and by bringing to the piece a greater focus upon the ritualistic, bushido-suffused culture of Shogun-era Japan; at times I found myself thinking of Kurosawa, particularly during the beautifully choreographed and shot action set pieces, but also through the flashes of humanity and humor that arise in the most unexpected places.

This is, however, also a movie of its time; the moment when the youngest of the ronin is so patently traumatized upon his first kill is touching, as is the fact that this brings him no shame among his compatriots. There is also an intriguing fin-de-siecle element to the piece, Naritsugu's retainers being sufficiently evolved to be acutely discomforted by their master's sadism - although this tends to be realized in but subtle cues - although still so bound by the code of bushido as to be unable to overtly question their loyalty to him even as they are giving their lives copiously, and all for said master's disdain, indifference and even amusement.

Shinzaemon and the unfortunate Hanbei are wonderfully realized in their staid, steadfast, almost monolithic presences - presences entirely interchangeable but for the vagaries of fate - and the innate reluctance and mutual respect (and this despite the morally unequal nature of their respective causes, which both see themselves as unable to change, bushido being the ineluctable truth that binds and drives them both) that they bring to their final combat is tellingly rendered. Indeed, the greatest emotion wrung from Shinzaemon in the whole movie is when Naritsugu kicks Hanbei's head following the duel, the head that Shinzaemon himself had just removed, but with a respect entirely absent from Naritsugu's action. That this latter is the only one of the characters who dies mewling like a baby strikes me as a cipher for a post-feudal Japan in which bushido, and the concurrent honor and respect, became a relative undercurrent, and indeed whilst the film unquestionably elucidates the shortcomings of this society it does so with a patent nostalgia.

A beautifully done movie; one may only hope for more of the same from Miike, or failing that, more of that first-rate torture porn.