13 Assassins (4½ Stars)

This was the second time I watched Takashi Miike's "13 Assassins". I didn't particularly enjoy it the first time. I found the first hour boring, but this time I paid much closer attention to what was being discussed and, as a result, I got it. That made a considerable difference.

The problem is that the film spends a lot of time introducing the first twelve assassins without really introducing them as characters. We get to know Shinzaemon, his nephew and Koyata, the hunter who later joins them, but most of the others remain almost completely interchangeable. They're named, but we don't learn enough about them to become emotionally attached to them. When some of them die during the battle, I didn't feel anything.

Koyata is the exception. I liked him a lot. He's such a contrast to the other samurai, and his unusual background makes him one of the most memorable characters in the film.

But then we get to the battle.

And what a battle it is!

Once the fighting starts, "13 Assassins" becomes an entirely different film. The action is spectacular, brutal and remarkably inventive, but it's also enormous fun. Despite the battle going on for what seems like an eternity, it absolutely flew by for me. I was enjoying it so much that I wouldn't have minded if it had gone on even longer.

There's also something strange about Naritsugu's attitude towards the battle. Having spent the film as the man everyone wants to kill, he seems to relish the final confrontation, even though he knows he'll die. When Shinzaemon finally kills him, Naritsugu thanks him for it. It reminds me of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's "Romulus der Große", in which the Roman emperor is waiting for the approaching German army because he wants his corrupt empire to come to an end, only to discover that the man who arrives to conquer him doesn't want to conquer anything either. The situations are different, but there's a similar irony in both men finally encountering the destruction they've been expecting.

That's what makes "13 Assassins" such an interesting film. The first hour still feels too long, but once the battle begins Miike more than makes up for the slow build-up. It's an astonishing piece of filmmaking, and by the time it was over I was left wishing there had been even more of it.

Miike has made some genuine masterpieces, including "First Love" and "Lesson of Evil", but "13 Assassins" doesn't quite reach that level. However, the second viewing certainly improved my opinion of it.

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