13 Assassins

With 13 Assassins, a remake of Kudo Eiichi's film from 1963, Miike Takashi makes a very successful attempt to match up to the granddad of all samurai films, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. In 1844 Japan, the murderous urges of Lord Naritsugu, the brother of the feudal commander, start getting out of hand. In his sadistic excesses, he has for instance amputated all of a woman’s limbs and her tongue. The noble samurai Shinzaemon Shimada is hired to remove the Lord. That’s not an easy task because the target is protected by an equally merciless fighter. Shimada persuades 12 brave samurai to take on this suicide mission. Together with the inhabitants of a mountain village, they set one booby-trap after another. When Lord Naritsugu arrives unexpectedly with 300 men, it turns into a David against Goliath struggle: a heroic and bloody battle for life and death lasting no less than 45 minutes. On Wednesday 2 February, the IFFR is showing the director's cut of this film, with 25 minutes of extra footage.