Takashi Miike delivers what will probably be the closest we’ll ever get to a “Takashi Miike Summer Movie” with this enthralling adventure set in feudal Japan in which 12 samurai and one forest-dwelling thief of sorts (who ends up being something of a better fighter than any of them) come together to kill a corrupt tyrant who likes to the cut the arms and legs off his ex-lovers and line up the members of a farming family and shoot them full of arrows one by one. Miike, as always, takes his time in the first act, carefully introducing each character and exploring their own personal stake in what’s essentially a suicide mission — and then everything completely explodes in the climactic battle sequence that runs no less than 50 minutes, a bloody sword-swinging rampage in which 13 men take on an army of 200 (and pretty much destroy an entire village in the process). With 13 Assassins, Takashi Miike, the master of disturbia behind Audition and Gozu, steps aside and makes way for Takashi Miike, kick-ass action movie director — really, this is the most satisfying samurai film in years, and perhaps one of the best action movies of all time.
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New On Netflix: 13 Assassins