13 Assassins (2010)

13 Assassins (Japanese: 十三人の刺客, romaji: Jūsannin no Shikaku) is a 2010 Japanese jidaigeki (period drama) film directed by Takashi Miike. The screenplay was written by Daisuke Tengan. The film is a remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 black-and-white Japanese film of the same name, Jûsan-nin no shikaku. A samurai epic with a loose historical basis, the film was produced by Toshiaki Nakazawa, who also produced the 2009 winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Departures.

The film stars Koji Yakusho, whose credits include Memoirs of a Geisha and Shall We Dance, along with Takayuki Yamada, Sōsuke Takaoka, Hiroki Matsukata, and Kazuki Namioka. It is the third film in which Yamada and Takaoka co-starred, the first two being Crows Zero and Crows Zero 2, both directed by Miike. It was nominated for Best Film at the 34th Japan Academy Prize.

Synopsis

In the 1840s, Japan, as the Tokugawa Shogunate faces extinction, a corrupt lord named Matsudaira Naritsugu of Akashi freely rapes, tortures, and murders his own citizens. He is protected because the Shogun is his half-brother. However, the Justice Minister realizes the threat he poses if Naritsugu should further ascend, and hires a trusted older Samurai, Shinzaemon, to ambush and murder Naritsugu. Unfortunately, the conversation is overheard by the Samurai Hanbei, a childhood friend of Shinzaemon who has persisted in loyalty toward Naritsugu.

Actors