In Feudal Japan the era of the samurai is waning. The sadistic young Lord Naritsugu rapes and kills at will. No one can touch him because he is the former Shogun's younger brother and thus above the law. A senior government official realizes the situation will become more dangerous after Naritsugu ascends to a higher political position. After a wronged party publicly commits seppuku, a trusted older samurai, Shinzaemon, is secretly hired to assassinate Naritsugu.
Shinzaemon gathers 11 more samurai, including his nephew Shinroukuro, and the 12 plan to ambush Naritsugu on his long journey home from Edo. Before they leave, they are visited by Naritsugu's samurai Hanbei, an old sparring partner of Shinzaemon's: each tries to dissuade the other from his task in vain, and Hanbei leaves promising to fight later.
Several of the assassins are sent to buy the help of a town to block Naritsugu's passage in order to force his route to their advantage. Shinzaemon and the others ride urgently towards the town they have chosen for the battle. On the way, they are met with a few of Naritsugu's men whom they kill easily. They decide to travel stealthily through the mountains, where they meet a hunter named Kiga Koyata who at least claims to be of samurai lineage, and they adopt him as the thirteenth assassin. He helps them find the village they have chosen for the conflict, and they are reunited with their comrades. They take the village over and convert it into a labyrinthine mousetrap with many camouflaged fortifications.
But when Naritsugu arrives, the assassins discover they are outnumbered even more heavily than originally expected: there are 200 guards, not the 70 they were expecting. Nonetheless they decide to continue their mission. The lengthy battle follows, with the Naritsugu and his guards trapped inside the village and attacked by the assassins with arrows, explosives, knives, and swords -- with the exception of Koyata, who fights with rocks in slings. Naritsugu, who has led a life of luxury, is enthralled by the violence. Inevitably, the assassins fall one by one as they inflict devastating casualties on the guards until, at last, there is a one-to-one sword fight between Shinzaemon and Hanbei, with Naritsugu watching. Shinzaemon triumphs, due to the fact that they are fighting on natural terrain and not in a dojo, and then approaches an excited Naritsugu, who stabs him in the abdomen, only to have Shinzaemon return the thrust, leaving both of them mortally wounded. Naritsugu dies in fear and pain in the mud; Shinzaemon then decapitates the body of Naritsugu with a coup de grace. Shinzaemon dies himself shortly thereafter, leaving only his nephew and the hunter standing amid the chaos and carnage.
| Kanji | 十三人の刺客 |
|---|---|
| Rōmaji | Jūsannin no Shikaku |
| Directed by | Takashi Miike |
| Produced by | Toshiaki Nakazawa (Sedic International) Jeremy Thomas (Recorded Picture Company) Takashi Hirajō (TV Asahi) |
| Screenplay by | Daisuke Tengan |
| Story by | Shōichirō Ikemiya |
| Starring | Kōji Yakusho Takayuki Yamada Yūsuke Iseya Gorō Inagaki (SMAP) Masachika Ichimura Mikijirō Hira |
| Music by | Kōji Endō |
| Cinematography | Nobuyasu Kita |
| Editing by | Kenji Yamashita |
| Studio | Toho Company Recorded Picture Company |
| Distributed by | Toho Company (Japan) Artificial Eye (UK) Magnet Releasing (USA) |
| Release date(s) | September 9, 2010 (Venice Film Festival) September 25, 2010 (Japan) |
| Running time | 141 minutes 126 minutes (International version) |
| Country | Japan United Kingdom |
| Language | Japanese |
Movie 1 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BPNLYOJ6
Movie 2 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PUO8KIY5
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