Review of 13 Assassins (2010) by Cleopatra T — 10 Dec 2011

I haven't watched many kung fu movies, including "Seven Samurai", so when my boyfriend said that "13 Assassins" is like the 1954 classic with a political element, I can neither agree nor disagree.

What I can definitively say about "13 Assassins" is that it is engrossing and, ultimately, thrilling. The first half of the film is spent introducing the titular characters as well as their nemesis, the unspeakably evil Lord Naritsugu.

The next 3/8 depicts the improbable (but not entirely impossible) slaying of some 200 of Naritsugu's henchmen by those titular characters in quite possibly the longest and arguably the muddiest, bloodiest swordfight ever filmed.

(When 10 bad guys pause long enough to allow one good guy to fell all or most of them, that's due to deference to the most skilled of all samurai, right? That's what I kept telling myself; I'm normally skeptical and critical of such cinematic anomalies, but hey, it worked this time.

) The lengthy, muddy, bloody battle in the Town of Death was super exciting, although it rendered the final showdown between Naritsugu and chief good guy Shinzaemon somewhat anticlimactic, yet still profound.