I have just watched Assassins Creed movie based on popular game and found another martial arts movie based on assassination topic named 13 Assassins. This samurai epic is a remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 black-and-white Japanese movie of the same name, Jûsan-nin no shikaku and based on a true incident, the film was produced by Japanese producer Toshiaki Nakazawa, who won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Departures. It stars Koji Yakusho (Memoirs of a Geisha and Shall We Dance), along with Takayuki Yamada, Hiroki Matsukata and Kazuki Namioka.
Plot: 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 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 him. He gathers eleven more samurai, including his nephew Shinrouko, and the dozen 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.
13 Assassins was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. The first trailer did not impressed me and did not force me to watch this martial arts movie, I only hope it will be much better than last swordplay movies like Warriors Way or Reign of Assassins Movie.
Watching a trailer I noticed Tsuyoshi Ihara, you could see him in Ninja movie as Masazuka alongside Scott Adkins.
Ihara Tsuyoshi was born on November 6, 1963, in Kokura, Kyushu. He grew up in Osaka, and after graduating high school, he joined JAC (Japan Action Club) which is headed by Sonny Chiba (aka Chiba Shinichi), which is a company of stunt and action actors. He made his debut in 1983 in a stage drama called “The Midnight Party.” Since then, he has appeared in many commercials, TV drama, and movies.
source: wikipedia, imdb