Eiichi Kudo's Thirteen Assassins can't seem to decide whether it's an art film masquerading as a B-movie or a B-movie masquerading as an art film. On the one hand, it's a terrifyingly visceral film with the last hour devoted to action scenes of the thirteen assassins attempting to kill the corrupt lord that they were hired to take care of. Bodies fall by the dozens as blood sprays by the gallons as they press forward in their appointed task. But Kudo filmed with the same eye for detail and design as Masaki Kobayashi. Shots are composed with along geometric shapes and architectural patterns such as the tiles of a roof or rows of freshly planted rice paddies. Kudo has the restraint to not show the corrupt lord committing the crimes for which he would be assassinated: the rape of another lord's wife and the subsequent murder of her entire family to cover it up. Instead, he uses lighting and sound to imply them with deft clarity. But when push comes to shove, Kudo delights in detailing every aspect of the fight: the planning stage, the trap, the ambush, the execution. The bastard hybrid of Seven Samurai and Samurai Rebellion, Thirteen Assassins is both chanbara and jidaigeki, action film and drama, bloody pulp movie and refined art film.
8/10
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