13 Assassins and a few notes on Amazon On Demand

13 Assassins is such a good film that it shames other action movies with its awesomeness. Miike is a tremendous talent – one of the best. He remains one of the few directors who can incite jealousy and envy in me – David Fincher might be another director who can do so.

Miike’s film, Inchi the Killer, remains one of the greatest splatter house movies ever made. In a recent favorite movies list I placed it third. Even more shocking of a film, and maybe even more entertaining, is his contribution to the masters of horrors series, Imprint. A film so depraved that is was not included in the program’s line-up. I’d heard rumors it was tasteless, but was shocked at the lengths Miike went.

Moveover, 13 Assassins is a traditional samurai film including all the rich mythology and imagery that comes with the genre. I was reading Roger Ebert’s review of the movie and he mentions that young directors should study the movie as a modern example of how to film great action scenes. He he’s quite correct.

Great service! Do NOT steal this movie. Pay the five or six bucks.

Miike’s film style, in his gangster films at least, is very agressive – with a huge emphasis on strange camera movement and dynamic editing. Miike, as prolific as he is, managed to remain true to the samurai genre and make something truly fantastic.

The film is simple enough: The Meiji period (Japan’s modernization) is just over the horizon and many of the Samurai have become lazy, Ronin (masterless), or just plain spoiled.

Few “true” Samurai still exist. As in, contained an uncompromising commitment to their master and desire to die in his honor. The film has a truly evil villain that few besides Miike would dare create. For example Naritsugu, the villain, enjoys raping and tutoring a woman, cutting off her limbs, then leaving her to die in the middle of a storm. He kills women and children without remorse and the threat of him rising to be Shogun is too much of risk.

Shinzaemon is hired to collect a group of “true” samurai to take him out. In a series of events not dissimliar to a heist movie such as Ocean’s 11, different individuals are slowly gathered and we really get to know all the different angles and personalities. This pays off big time later.

The whole movie comes down to the last forty or fifty minutes where the assassins must face off against hundreds of others. Unlike 300, quite a bit of tricks and traps are involved in these fights. The way Miike shoots action and how he stages fights is such a breath of fresh air in comparison to the flash cutting and I-can’t-see-what-fuck-is-going-on action films. I’m not saying one is better than the other, just that it is nice to see someone who actually cares about choreographing a scene and letting the action happen in front of the camera.

The movie is shot with the spirit of all the greatest Japanese directors obsessed with the samurai - what makes the movie so enduring is that Miike’s one-of-a-kind touch can be seen everywhere.

Take one scene where one samurai, knowing death is near, jumps on an enemy with an explosive in his hand. Instead of just cutting away and hearing the blast or just showing it straight on, Miike decides to cut to some other characters, a blast is heard, and what could  be enough blood to fill an olympic pool flies over one of the buildings.

Pure Joy.

The movie also contains countless decapitations, split humans, blood sprays, and everything else you expect from Miike. There also is a ponderous scene where a woman is standing in a stream and (forgive me if I saw this wrong because it is a quick cutaway) eating blood coming from her vagina.

Now, I know this sounds like I’ve been overly influenced by Imprint, but this is truly what I saw. When I get my hands on the DVD or Bluray I can investigate further. If anyone knows what was happening in this scene (it might have been edited out) let me know. (Comment or e-mail)

What Miike has created is an action masterpiece. Filled with violence, great characterization, and wonderfully shot action scenes. The only mistake is there is no “day-to-day” activities in the towns. We don’t get a feeling for the how the time period is really. It just jumps into the story, which might be a good thing.

It plays out like a graphic novel and that is in no way a bad thing.

A note on Amazon On Demand:

It has its kinks, but all-in-all is wonderful. I was planning on only watching the preview and ended up clicking to “Rent it”. I was annoyed, tried to cancel it, and ended up renting it a second time! I immediately e-mailed them my error and they removed one of the charges and I just decided to watch it. But the “rental” was gone. I e-mailed them regarding their error and they immediately, withing fifteeen minutes, placed the movie in my rental section.

I really insist people used On Demand (I receive no money from them) and hope to watch other “On Demand and in theaters” movies this way. The customer service was impeccable – it is a great service.

-Collin