13 Assassins (2010)
13 Assassins (Japanese: 十三人の刺客, Hepburn: Jūsannin no Shikaku) is a 2010 samurai film directed by Takashi Miike, and starring Kōji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Sōsuke Takaoka, Hiroki Matsukata, Kazuki Namioka and Gorō Inagaki. A remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 Japanese period drama film 13 Assassins, it is set in 1844 toward the end of the Edo period in which a group of thirteen assassins—comprising twelve samurai and a hunter—secretly plot to assassinate Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu, the murderous leader of the Akashi clan, to thwart his appointment to the powerful Shogunate Council. The film marks the third collaboration in which Yamada and Takaoka co- starred, the first two being Crows Zero and Crows Zero 2, both directed by Miike. Principal photography took place over two months, from July to September 2009, in Tsuruoka, Yamagata, in northern Japan. The film opened in Japan on 25 September 2010 and in the United States on 29 April 2011. It received critical acclaim from western critics, who compared it favourably to Akira Kurosawa’s oeuvre.
Plot.
In the year 1844 of the Edo Period, as the Tokugawa Shogunate is in decline, the sadistic Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu of Akashi rapes, tortures, mutilates and murders nobles and commoners at will. He is shielded because the Shōgun is his half-brother. Sir Doi Toshitsura, the Shōgun’s Justice Minister, realizes that when Naritsugu ascends to the Shogunate Council, civil war will break out between the Shōgun and the many feudal lords Naritsugu has offended. Then, the feudal lord of the Mamiya clan publicly commits seppuku as a protest against the Shōgun’s refusal to punish Lord Naritsugu, who has personally murdered the feudal lord’s entire family.RELATED:
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When the Shōgun still insists upon Naritsugu’s promotion, Sir Doi seeks out a trusted older samurai, Shimada Shinzaemon, who served under the former shōgun, and secretly hires him to assassinate Naritsugu. However, Naritsugu’s loyal retainers led by Hanbei, an old contemporary of Shinzaemon, learn of the plot by spying on Doi.
Shinzaemon gathers eleven trusted samurai including Shinzaemon’s nephew, Shinrokurō, who together plan to ambush Naritsugu on his official journey from Edo to his lands in Akashi. Just before they leave, Hanbei arrives and warns his old colleague that he will suffer grave consequences if he tries to kill Naritsugu.
The group, with the legal authority and financial assistance of Doi, buy the help of the town of Ochiai in order to create a trap. They also enlist the help of Makino, a feudal lord whose daughter-in-law was raped and son murdered by Naritsugu. With troops, Makino blocks the official highway, forcing Naritsugu to head into the trap; Makino then disembowels himself to conceal his own involvement in the conspiracy. During the assassins’ journey to the town, they are attacked by rōnin who have been paid off by Hanbei to kill the plotters. The group decides to head through the mountains but end up getting lost. In the process they encounter a hunter named Kiga Koyata who becomes their guide and later the thirteenth assassin.
Production.
13 Assassins was produced through Toshiaki Nakazawa’s film outfit, Sedic International, and Jeremy Thomas’s Recorded Picture Company. Nakazawa had previously worked with director Takashi Miike on The Bird People in China and Andromedia (both in 1998), Yakuza Demon (2003), and Sukiyaki Western Django (2007). At the start of production, Thomas said he was pleased to be working again with “wonderful Japanese filmmakers like Toshiaki Nakazawa and Takashi Miike, whose work speaks for itself as being amongst the most successful and innovative coming from Japan”. Nakazawa replied that he would like Thomas “to wear a sword also, and with one more assassin, together we will send out the fourteen assassins over there”. Of his approach in directing the film, Miike said:
Theatrical run, Box office.
Jeremy Thomas’s London-based company HanWay Films handled international sales. Toho had prebought the rights to distribute in Japan, and released it on 25 September 2010. The film competed for the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice International Film Festival on 9 September 2010. Magnet Releasing, a genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, acquired North American distribution rights. The film streamed video on demand in March 2011, and was released theatrically in the United States on 29 April. At the box office, 13 Assassins grossed $802,778 in the US and Canada. From an estimated $6 million budget, it grossed $17,555,141 worldwide.