Yakusho Koji: Perfect Roles | Out Of Competition
Japan, 2010, 125’, Japanese
Directed by: Miike Takashi
Screenplay: Tengan Daisuke
Cinematography (color):Kita Nobuyasu
Editing: Yamashita Kenji
Music: Endo Koji
Producers: Umezawa Michihiko, Ichikawa Minami, Shiraishi Toichiro, Suzaki Kazuomi, Usui Hisashi
Cast: Yakusho Koji, Yamada Takayuki, Iseya Yusuke, Ihara Tsuyoshi, Matsukata Hiroki, Hira Mikijiro, Inagaki Goro
Date of First Release in Territory: September 25th, 2010
By making 13 Assassins, which premiered in the Venice Film Festival competition and was a commercial success, Miike Takashi cemented his position as a recognized auteur and proven hit-maker.
The Miike of the 1990s and 2000s, who trashed formula, while indulging the wilder, naughtier side of his imagination, is still alive and well in this reworking of Kudo Eiichi’s eponymous 1963 film. But there is also a more mature, legacy-conscious Miike present, matching himself against the Golden Age greats of the samurai genre – not only Kudo, but the greatest of all, Kurosawa Akira; especially his 1954 epic Seven Samurai.
There is plenty of high-charged splatter action, with black comic touches, in the familiar Miike style. But in the 50-minute climactic battle, the heroes change from cocky, near-superhuman fighters, wasting opponents with everything from massive explosions to sticks and stones, to wounded, desperate men fighting for their lives against overwhelming numbers, filmed in dark, grainy shades that foreshadow doom. There is a pathos in their struggle that is new to Miike’s work – but often present in the great samurai epics he is trying to equal.
Miike also showed a new way forward for an old genre struggling to reinvent itself. Rather than try to dazzle with CG wonders like so many of his contemporaries, Miike delivers sweaty full-bore action. More than the genre’s graying core fans, his target is a younger generation for whom the classic samurai fight scenes, beautifully shot as they are, often look like dance numbers.
The story follows the outlines of the original film, which is in turn loosely based on a real incident. The capriciously cruel Lord Naritsugu (Inagaki Goro) is sowing death and destruction among his hapless subjects when his chief retainer cuts open his own stomach in protest. Lord Doi (Hira Mikijiro), a member of the shogun’s Council of Elders, decides that Naritsugu must be stopped before his expected ascension to the council – and possibly even to the shogunate itself.
Doi charges Shimada Shinzaemon (Yakusho Koji), a brave and capable metsuke (a sort of feudal-era intelligence officer) with the task of killing Naritsugu. After seeing one victim of his target’s sadism – a woman whose legs, arms and tongue have been removed – Shinzaemon needs little persuading.
He gathers a band of 11 like-minded assassins, including the bluff senior metsuke Kuranaga (Matsukata Hiroki), the saturnine ronin (masterless samurai) Hirayama (Ihara Tsuyoshi) and his own dissolute but fearless nephew Shinrouko (Yamada Takayuki). Together they plot to surprise Naritsugu and his minions at a village during his annual journey from Edo (old Tokyo) to his domain.
Enlisting the help of the locals – including the wild-eyed mountain man Koyata (Iseya Yusuke), who proves his worth as a guide and fighter – they carefully lay their trap. But then they learn that, instead of the smaller force they expected, Naritsugu and his canny lieutenant Hanbei (Ichimura Masachika) have 300 men with them. Knowing that near-certain death awaits them, the 13 assassins (counting Koyata) decide to fight anyway out of pride – and because it’s the most fun they know.
Despite the lengthy cast list, the film’s stars stand out from the crowd. Playing Shinzaemon, Yakusho brings not only his trademark nice-guy-ness, but a dark sense of humor and a hard edge of rage. That is, he makes himself over into the ideal Miike hero. Iseya is also excellent as the primal Koyata, fighting only with guts, instinct and laughing scorn for samurai pretensions.
Could the 50 minutes of bloodshed have been trimmed? Yes, but then 13 Assassins wouldn’t be a Miike movie – that is, an entertaining riot of excess.
Miike Takashi
Miike Takashi (b. 1960) made his directorial debut in 1991 with Eye Catch Junction. In the 1990s he churned out a profusion of yakuza action films, often with a signature mix of extreme violence and black comedy. His 1999 shocker Audition brought him to the attention of the West. After that he alternated big-budget commercial projects, such as 13 Assassins, with smaller indie projects. FEFF27 presented two Miike films inspired by the 1968 classic Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare: The Great Yokai War (2005) and The Great Yokai War: Guardians (2021).
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
1999 – Audition
2001 – Ichi the Killer
2002 – Graveyard of Honor
2003 – One Missed Call
2003 – Gozu
2005 – The Great Yokai War
2007 – Crows Zero
2010 – 13 Assassins
2021 – The Great Yokai War:Guardians
2025 – Blazing Fists