13 Assassins (2010)
Take up your sword
Tonight we take up swords. Why do we take up swords? Well, largely because I like them - but in this case for the good of a people and a healthy dose of revenge. Comfy clothes, a whole mass of like-looking bodies clashing, tonight we get it all packaged with some hard-baked subs that will make you wonder why you are seeing double until you turn off the optional subs - get your swords on, its time for 13 Assassins.
Do you like samurai movies? Well, you’ve probably heard this one before then. Heck, even if you prefer something a little more European or pure fantasy, you’ve likely heard the basic threads of this spun tale. A man is rising to power - a vicious, entitled, some would even go as far to say evil man. Not much can officially be done about this, as the current ruler is perfectly okay with this given their relation to them. Unofficially, however, a crew is forming with the future of the people in mind - of a land not totally enveloped in murderous, abusive hands of the would be future controller of it all. We journey as this rouge band builds its numbers and puts everything it has - including their lives - on the line to guard the hope of land from a tyrant.
It’s a classic story of honor and right and wrong - and although it’s incredibly quick to make you take a stand against the main bad of the movie, it also isn’t shy of spilling out the conflict and somewhat disassembling view of after-thought. Most of this is done via character use and building. We get enough within the first five minutes of the movie to know we hate the stuck-up noble - a feat that even some slasher movies aren’t capable of doing. On the B-roll side of this, we also very well get the two side of honor and loyalty through the royal’s head samurai and the lead good character. The two characters are both used to show the at times conflicting call of duty, and how each side isn’t without it’s own breed of suffering and sacrifice. That said, this isn’t really a huge character piece intended for massive build ups and elaborations - you get what you need from the dialogue to form relationships between the characters, and your attachment to the good guys is more from their just cause and at times entertaining interactions with each other than any big history or character arcs. It’s more about the moment than those within it.
That doesn’t mean the actors do badly though. I mean, I can’t really attest to line delivery - I speak so little Japanese I might as well not speak it at all, so all the nuance of deliveries is loss past a superficial level of “that sounds surprised or angry” you can get from almost any acting job. They deliver a good amount of body language and those said tones though - the wilderness man they come across often comes across as quite playful and exaggerated compared to the more focused samurai. Our main villain comes across wonderfully hate-able, and he’s playing that holier-than-thou do-nothing-wrong character quite well down to the end. There’s a moment or two in there that you could considering touching, although nothing in so much as what you’d expect from a rom-com or something along that line. More like that old machismo brotherly love of “finish the mission!” and “I got your back!” kind of stuff.
Avengers assemble
Costumes are well done. Having said that, it can and will be a little difficult at times to tell people apart. One might expect some “they all look the same” joke to be coming, but in all reality the first real battle we see has both sides wearing very similar and same colored clothes duking it out in a flurry of action - until you get a less hectic shot of someones face to recognize them, it’s quite hard to focus in on them. The final battle isn’t nearly as difficult, with our good guys donning outfits that stand quite apart from the more elaborate outfits of the bad guys. Yes, the big hats probably also help make that easier, but either way there’s a bunch to play with in that period-piece kind of way, where the samurai where no longer rolling around in their elaborate armors, instead finding themselves in a conflicted time of piece and robe.
The action scenes are pretty dang good. We range the selection of quick and effortless to brutal and with more back-and-forth than a pendulum. Violence doesn’t hold itself back, and you’ll get plenty of the red stuff being thrown around - although you often won’t find much in the lines of overly detailed gore, so it could still be viewed for the most part without many getting too squeamish about it. Probably the roughest thing to witness would be the no-limbed woman or just the general actions of the main bad thematically, but when it comes to the fights you’ll see some pretty entertaining many versus few stuff, specifically in the final act.
Audio is there and does it’s job. Do I remember it? As usual no. Balance is good - although I don’t understand Japanese I never had a hard time hearing it, even during the action scenes. The subtitles were nice and readable, and thankfully there wasn’t an absolute avalanche of dialogue during most the action scenes so you can take in whats going on without feeling like you are missing everything by reading. Not particularly related to audio, but also usually included down here when I remember to get to it, there’s a bit of things you could pick out on here and there to think more about - such as the before mentioned notes on the dangers of following the code and how it can contradict. There’s also a bit at the end that’s somewhat left open to interpretation on account of how it’s presented - but that’s one for you to figure out for yourself.
A call back, a reason, a proclamation, and a prophecy all in one image.
I enjoy this movie. Yes, if all you want is action it’s a pretty big build up to get to what you crave - it’s about two and a half hours long, with one version running somewhat under that by twenty or thirty minutes. How big of a deal that is will be a miles vary situation for sure, especially when it so effectively sets up the reasons for the events to play out in just the first five or so minutes - but really, that ending is a great long-winded pay off that probably could have stood as it’s own movie with a trailer-style character introduction to tell you who the main players were for the action fans. I will note that this is technically a remake of a movie from the 60’s as well - but I don’t recall seeing the original, so I can’t really speak to the changes made. I feel like it’s safe to say they probably ramped up the blood, but maybe someday we’ll just have to find out.