"Thirteen. The time has come to lay down your lives for the greater cause. Are you ready?"
13 Assassins is all about the payoff. And the payoff comes in the form of 50 minutes of absolute carnage at the end of the movie. The story is about 13 warriors, some of the last truly capable samurai at a time when the era of those legendary soldiers was coming to an end, who band together to kill a despicable, deranged and utterly evil lord who is step-brother and future heir to the ruling shogun. Greatly outnumbered, the men devise a plan to force Lord Naritsugu and his guards to a village that they've prepared as what can only be called as a deathtrap.
If you liked the "Crazy 88's" fight from Kill Bill Volume 1 or the massive battle at the end of Azumi, then the epic showdown at the end of 13 Assassins automatically makes this a must see. But what about the preceding half of the movie? Most of that time is spent introducing us to the 13 assassins, Sir Hanbei - the noble but loyal to a fault man who is in charge of Lord Naritsugu's safety, and making us hate (and I mean REALLY hate) the lord himself. This portion of the movie was necessary to setup finale, but it was understandably not as exciting or captivating as the lengthy battle it precedes.
Rest assured though, the storytelling doesn't stop when the action begins. Some action scenes in movies can be so endless that they become monotonous (and boring, as a result), but 13 Assassins neatly avoids that trap by including character development until the very end.
This is a brutal, visceral movie, from the sadism of Lord Naritsugu to the blood-soaked, frenetic finale. If that sounds like something you'd be interested in, I heartily recommend that you give it a shot.
