• About
  • Events
  • Community Calendar
  • Advertise
  • Foundation
  • Contact
  • Seattle Chinese Post

Northwest Asian Weekly

  • Community
    • Names in the News
    • Business
    • Pictorials
    • Obituaries
  • Nation
  • World
  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Columns
    • On the Shelf
    • At the Movies
    • A-POP!
    • The Layup Drill
    • Travel
    • Wayne’s Worlds
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Publisher Ng’s blog
    • Commentary
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Astrology
  • Classifieds
You are here: Home / Arts & Entertainment / Reviews / At the Movies / Following the ‘13 Assassins’

Following the ‘13 Assassins’

April 26, 2013 By Northwest Asian Weekly

By Andrew Hamlin
Northwest Asian Weekly

https://i0.wp.com/nwasianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/32_18/movies_13.JPG

When director Eiichi Kudo went into pre-production for his 1963 samurai film “13 Assassins,” he had no way of knowing that he would help pioneer a new age in samurai cinema.  Kudo worked with screenwriter Kaneo Ikegami, who’d written another film, “Seventeen Ninja,” released earlier that same year, and Ikegami had come up with the idea of focusing on a team of warriors, instead of a single swordsman.

The result following the completion of Kudo’s trilogy of films — “13 Assassins,” plus “The Great Killing” and “Eleven Samurai” — was a new genre of film known as “Shudan Jidaigeki,” in which groups of samurai came together, sometimes from disparate origins, for a common cause. The approach proved popular amongst both audiences and critics.

The influential “Kinema Jumpo” Japanese film magazine published a list in 2004 of its picks for the finest samurai films of all time. Kudo’s “13 Assassins” came in second, surpassed only by a film much better known in the West, Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai.” With the trilogy now available on DVD in North America for the first time, contemporary American audiences can see for themselves.

“13 Assassins” opens with a samurai prostrated on the ground before a castle gate, dead by his own hand.

Narration, combined with onscreen action, explains the backstory.

The fighter’s suicide is related to the evil Lord Naritsugu Matsudaira (played by Kantaro Suga). The Lord sexually attacked a woman, driving her to suicide. Shame and seppuku surround Lord Naritsugu. He refuses to take responsibility for his own actions, and those around him often feel shamed into suicide, for sullied honor.

A respected warrior named Shinzaemon (Chiezo Kataoka) receives an assignment to eliminate the Lord. This is no easy task. Naritsugu is a son of the current Shogun, with power, connections, and plenty of bodyguards. He also has an intelligent, seasoned head of security in Hanbei (Ryohei Uchida).

One of the film’s many subtle points is the respectful rivalry between Shinzamon and Hanbei. Each understands the other’s position, even as each works to defeat the other. Deeply ingrained codes of honor keep Hanbei loyal to Lord Naritsugu, although his face and even his body at times show the strains of serving the Lord — a spoiled brat who’s degenerated into a bully, and from that, into an authentic human monster.

Kudo and Ikegami felt no need to fill the film with continuous action. This is a narrative about a growing outrage, and the need to construct a meticulous response to that outrage. The political details and the recruitment of the men in small clumps pass by calmly.

But director and cinematographer Jubei Suzuki keep things interesting with camera angles and artful framing of the samurai within each shot. The fighters appear and disappear through sliding doors and into shadows, creating ever-shifting compositions across the screen.

The black-and-white film, and the somewhat more conservative mores in those days regarding violence, means that the film does not count as a gorefest, but it does not need to. The tension skillfully builds until we can see the men starting to crack under it. When the black blood does spill — out of the  mouth, down the hand — it’s all the more shocking . The slashed back of a staggering man, showing all his layers of clothing sliced clean with a katana, takes the place of a hundred gushing cuts.

Takashi Miike remade “13 Assassins” in 2010, with great style and considerably more gore. The original, though, retains its place in cinema history. It’s an abiding blend of tension, snap, strategy, and history. (end)

“13 Assassins” and its companion movies, “The Great Killing,” and “Eleven Samurai,” are available on DVD from your local video store. You can also visit http://www.animeigo.com.

Andrew Hamlin can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: At the Movies Tagged With: 13 Assassins, 2010, 2013, Akira Kurosawa, Andrew Hamlin, DVD, Eiichi Kudo, Eleven Samurai, Jubei Suzuki, Kinema Jumpo Japanese, Lord Naritsugu Matsudaira, North America, Northwest Asian Weekly, Seventeen Ninja, Shinzaemon Chiezo Kataoka, Shudan Jidaigeki, Vol 32 No 18 | April 27 - May 3

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe to our e-news

PICTORIAL: 2020 Entrepreneurs of the Year

PICTORIAL: 10th Annual Ethnic Media Candidates Meet and Greet

PICTORIAL: Night Market 2019

Copyright 2018 Northwest Asian Weekly. All rights reserved.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.