13 Assassins

is a 2010 samurai film directed by Takashi Miike, and starring Kōji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Sōsuke Takaoka, Hiroki Matsukata, Kazuki Namioka and Gorō Inagaki. A remake of Eiichi Kudo's 1963 Japanese period drama film 13 Assassins, it is set in 1844 toward the end of the Edo period in which a group of thirteen assassins—comprising twelve samurai and a hunter—secretly plot to assassinate Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu, the murderous leader of the Akashi clan, to thwart his appointment to the powerful Shogunate Council. The film marks the third collaboration in which Yamada and Takaoka co-starred, the first two being Crows Zero and Crows Zero 2, both directed by Miike. Principal photography took place over two months, from July to September 2009, in Tsuruoka, Yamagata, in northern Japan. The film opened in Japan on 25September 2010 and in the United States on 29April 2011. It received critical acclaim from western critics, who compared it favourably to Akira Kurosawa's oeuvre. Plot In the year 1844 of the Edo Period, as the Tokugawa Shogunate is in decline, the sadistic Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu of Akashi rapes, tortures, mutilates and murders nobles and commoners at will. He is shielded because the Shōgun is his half-brother. Sir Doi Toshitsura, the Shōgun's Justice Minister, realizes that when Naritsugu ascends to the Shogunate Council, civil war will break out between the Shōgun and the many feudal lords Naritsugu has offended. Then, the feudal lord of the Mamiya clan publicly commits seppuku as a protest against the Shōgun's refusal to punish Lord Naritsugu, who has personally murdered the feudal lord's entire family. When the Shōgun still insists upon Naritsugu's promotion, SirDoi seeks out a trusted older samurai, Shimada Shinzaemon, who served under the former shōgun, and secretly hires him to assassinate Naritsugu. However, Naritsugu's loyal retainers led by Hanbei, an old contemporary of Shinzaemon, learn of the plot by spying on Doi. Shinzaemon gathers eleven trusted samurai including Shinzaemon's nephew, Shinrokurō, who together plan to ambush Naritsugu on his official journey from Edo to his lands in Akashi. Just before they leave, Hanbei arrives and warns his old colleague that he will suffer grave consequences if he tries to kill Naritsugu.