13 Assassins

13 Assassins (2010) is Takashi Miike's samurai action epic, available to watch online on iFILM. Japan, 1844, the dying days of the shogunate. Twelve warriors and one wild mountain man set a trap for a tyrant.

Lord Naritsugu, the shogun's own brother, revels in untouchable cruelty — raping, maiming and killing for sport while the law looks away. Since no one can move against him openly, a senior official quietly hires aging samurai Shinzaemon Shimada (Koji Yakusho) to cut the monster down. Shinzaemon assembles a band of twelve and lures Naritsugu's escort, led by his loyal swordsman Hanbei, into a village rigged from end to end. Thirteen men against two hundred; the ambush has to even those odds.

The film's final forty-five minutes are one unbroken battle, the village turned into a burning maze of traps, and Miike shoots it filthy, brutal and stripped of any romance about the honor of the blade. It's a remake of a 1963 classic, but the fury and physical weight are all its own. If you love Kurosawa and Seven Samurai, this is an easy recommendation. Stream 13 Assassins (2010) online on iFILM.