A 45 min. straight showdown sequence of swords in bloody battle. 'Nuff said.

Great movie with a good story. When it starts, pay attention and the subtitles help if you can stand them. I personally love them because it tells who is speaking, what sounds are heard and you capture the whole story as well. The beginning sets up the rest of the movie. We are introduced to a man that is pure terror and evil practicing his whim and want on anyone, anywhere at any time all bad and perverted as well as murderous. You have no trouble hating this guy and then at some point, are repulsed by him. It makes you want to join the "13" in the movie and make it "14" no problem who just want to kill this guy slowly I might add. He does some gut-wrenching deeds so be ready. The recruiting of the 13 is good to watch as they all offer something and everyone offers a vow to fight to the finish. Great scenes on setting up the decent battle to come of a few against the many. They take over a town and do some nice little moves in it to even the odds. These Assassins fight a good fight and keep in mind, a Samurai is an exceptional swordsman who can cut off any part of your body within a quarter part of a second cleanly I might add. These boys just go at it swinging their swords until they are exhausted making the point that it is not over until it is over and when that will be who knows. Nice build-up to the ending with closure and I might add I found myself tired as if I was doing the fighting and so will you. Recommend a nice snack or some pumpkin or sunflower seeds to keep your hands busy plus a tasty drink of choice. To see good fighters fight until the end is worth a watch and to see them fight for a cause is a must see. Kudos to the actors and the Director for pulling this off. Prepare for battle!

In the tradition of Kurosawas "The Seven Samurai", this movie is for Samurai-movie lovers. The story is simple: bad prince must be killed and thirteen men get the task to do it. There is very little background about most of the men - it's just about planning, followed by one huge festival of limb slashing, rolling heads and awesome sword fighting choreography. The last forty minutes absolutely rock! The martial battle cries and the typical Samurai yadda yadda and pseudo- philosophy (loyalty of course), are somewhat forgettable - there are better films out there, like "Ame Agaru" ,"Rashomon", "Seven Samurai", "Yojimbo", "Ran", "Zatoichi". Nevertheless, I personally liked it, since I got plenty of sword swinging Samurai scenes. But one must be a fan of such flicks to like 13 Assassins.

Takashi Miike, better known for darkly funny and sadistically violent fare like AUDITION and ICHI THE KILLER, delivers an excellent period samurai film which also comments on the nature of honor, bushido and the concept of the samurai itself. The plot is rather simple: a group of 12 samurai (plus one other person they meet on the way) have decided it's in Japan's best interest to kill a lord with ties to the Shogun. The reason, well-established in early scenes, is because of his reckless disregard for human life. The first half is concerned with how the samurai conceive their plan and the second half is the execution of the plan, which is glorious and bloody. There was a lot of attention paid to the characters and their various motivations, and the story unfolded at a very nice pace: not too fast and not too slow. Also, being a Takashi Miike film, there was a couple of elements which put his stamp on the material (which is a remake). One is a particularly graphic suicide which opens the film, and the other is a naked, limbless woman without a tongue. One thing I did like about the movie was the meta-comments that were made on the concepts of bushido and the samurai, which completely removed any romanticism that might have at one point been associated with them. These ideas are expressed mainly through the 13th assassin and the lord (Naritsugu) who they're on a mission to kill. In such a stunning film, the only thing I can really complain about are some obvious CGI bulls (which are on fire) that appear in the second half. Other than that, this is an impressive movie no matter which way you look at it. Highly recommended, especially for fans of Japanese samurai films.