3

Evening one and all.

 

A film and hearty welcome to ep.3 of Film Flare. This issue will be the first in a series summing up what I (as an impartial viewer) considered to be some of the better films of 2011, a year that despite the sightly underwhelming blockbusters (Transformers, Green Lantern, etc), surprised many with a strong showing of smaller budgeted, smaller scale films. 

 

The first of the 'Best of 2011' entries is.....(fanfare please!)

Yes, Takashi Miike's epic old-fashioned ninja/revenge flick 13 Assassins. 

 

Takashi Miike has over the last twenty or so years brutally carved a niche market within cinema. Working at a ruthless work rate (around seventy films/TV productions in twnety years), Mr Miike is most famous in the West for incredibly unnerving romance/horror (you read that right!) Audition as well as insane, twisted sadism/maochism face-off Ichi the Killer (trailer rated BV: for Bloody Violent).

The director's other lesser known film include such titles as Dead or Alive and Visitor Q, which means that if we add all of these films together, we end up with a director who has incredible style, visual flair, a sense of humour blacker than a coalminer's arse and a propensity for extreme violence.

 

We find all of these things in 13 Assassins, in some ways the most restrained he has been for some time. The film is essentially split into three acts, a theme common for samurai films in general:

• Act 1 - the villian or circumstance that requires the samurai to take action
• Act 2 - the gathering of other warriors and the planning of the action
• Act 3 - the action

Make no mistake, the villian of the film comes across as a twenty four carat monstor, the film really pushing the limits of it's 15 rating. The actor, Goro Inagaki really playing the dead eyed, 'smile dancing in the corner of the mouth' Matsudaira Naritsugu to a chilling standard. 

The gathering of the Assassins is where the majority of the dry humour comes in, especially with the character of Kiga Koyata (a character with traits similar to many Akira Kurosawa samurai characters).

The 3rd Act is a consumate display of choreography, cinematography and visual continuation as our plucky band of Assassins wade their way through Naritsugu's two hundred (200!) strong army with nothing but strategy, skill and cunning. This sequence is incredible, filled with every emotion a dictionary could muster, every previous shot and sequence Miike directed seems to been practise for this 30 minute fight. Beautiful!

 

But it is this next point that elevates 13 Assassins from simply a good samurai film to a fantastic film. It is so similar to the classic Samurai films in feel, tone, structure and these aspect are placed within a modern film making method. The film IS a proper, good old-fashioned Samurai film but for modern audiences, and well worth a watch.

 

Rating: 11 out of 13. 

Trailer here:

 

 

P.S

Before some of you smart-arses come wading in, I know technically the film was released in Japan in 2010, but the UK release date was May 2011. Which is why it's under my 'Best of 2011'. 

Comments

[SUZUKIカーマット]

Greatest strategy for the men you'll be able to discover immediately.