Director Takashi Miike is well know for his Japanese cult, horror/ thriller cinema. Films such as the brilliant Ichi the Killer and Audition have gained a controversial, and taboo breaking nature to his films. Released in 2010, 13 Assassins sees him try his hand at a period samurai piece (Jidaigeki / Chanbara) and take a much more ‘realistic’ approach to his directing. Gone is the craziness, over-the-top violence and the black comedy, for a much more cinematic and action packed picture. Miike delivers a fantastic film that is well acted, well directed and thoroughly entertaining.
Ray Porreca of Entertainment Buddha writes: "Video games and movies have a long – and traditionally rocky – history together. Games have always popped up after the release of a hit film, hoping to capture the box office rush and generate more sales numbers. Sadly, all too often, movie related video games end up disappointing fans. Instead of building upon the great and engrossing worlds seen in feature films, video games based off of movies tend to simply rehash what the viewer has already seen on the silver screen, creating for what generally feels like hollow entertainment."
Reviews of 13 Assassins and Submarine, interview with The Eye of the Storm actor Geoffrey Rush and my Top 5 Fight Movies.
The once dormant samurai movie is rejuvenated in 13 Assassins, a spirited and violent romp which delves into the honour and savagery of samurai ideology.
First off, Ichi the Killer I didn't like at all really. Audition, however, was one of the most disturbingly scary movies I've seen in a long while. That being said, I really want to see this one.
I've heard some bad reviews for it. However, out of all the bad reviews I've seen, all of them have the same complaint: this isn't the typical crazy gore-fest that Miike usually does (or something along those lines). And they continue to criticize it for that.
Who cares? That's not what he was going for here and that's apparent from the trailers. It's apparent that he's going for that old school kung fu type of movie. And his previous style doesn't really cater to that too well. Especially if you're going for a proper homage and really want it to be old school like that. From a few others (who can get past it not being his usual...or that just don't know who he is) I've heard it's actually good on that level.