13 ASSASSINS: DIRECTOR’S CUT (Japan, 2010)
Directed by: Takashi Miike
Starring: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Goro Inagaki 

Takashi Miike is known as the wildman of Japanese cinema, but he’s always been very clear about who his idol is: Masaki Kobayashi. It’s never been exactly clear where the man who once had his movie’s title written onscreen in dripping semen thought he intersected with the work of Japan’s great humanist filmmaker, but with 13 ASSASSINS everything suddenly snaps into focus. This is the movie Miike was born to make. He’s always been a classical director, but it’s the outre, exploitation-ready subject matter he’s covered that’s allowed cineastes to relegate him to the “Shock! Horror! Asian Extreme!” ghetto. Well no more. Because with 13 ASSASSINS, Miike reveals to the world what the rest of us have always known: he is one of the planet’s finest  classical directors.

A remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 film, 13 ASSASSINS is the ultimate samurai movie. Once it’s finished you really don’t need to see any others. Circa 1850: Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu, the shogun’s adopted son, is out of control. He uses his subjects for target practice and lops off the arms and legs of a Makino clan woman who bugs him. Worried that he’ll eventually ascend to the throne, a lord goes to retired samurai, Shinzaemon (Koji Yakusho, one of Japan’s great screen icons of middle-aged masculine cool), and asks him to intervene. Shinzaemon then puts together a crack team of 13 disaffected samurai (including his dissolute nephew, played by Takayuki Yamada, recipient of this year’s Rising Star Award) to take down Matsudaira as he travels from the capitol to his home district.

What ensues is a movie that is totally off-balance from what you’d expect. Battles erupt in unlikely places, slow scenes happen all wrong, the final 40 minutes is one insanely choreographed battle scene and with Miike’s extra 17 minutes of footage reinserted (it’s the same footage that was there in the domestic cut but removed from the American version) the movie becomes even stranger and more heart-breaking. On the one hand, this is the Dirty Dozen for samurai. On the other, it’s just flat-out awesome.