Takashi Miike's rise is complete: This one-time director of cheapo shock pics — which he churned out like sausages and were beloved by foreign Asian Extreme fans — is now a proven hit-maker and recognized auteur, with his new samurai swashbuckler "Jusannin no Shikaku (13 Assassins)" screening in this year's Venice Film Festival competition.
The Miike of old, who trashed formula, while indulging the wilder, naughtier side of his imagination, is still alive and well in this reworking of Eiichi Kudo's eponymous 1963 film. But there is also a more mature, legacy-conscious Miike present in "Jusannin no Shikaku." No longer satisfied with just being the coolest kid in the class, he is matching himself against the Golden Age greats of the samurai genre — not only Kudo, but the greatest of all, Akira Kurosawa; especially his 1954 epic "Shichinin no Samurai (Seven Samurai)."
This oversize ambition, present in every frame, does not result in a bloated, self-indulgent genre parody like "Sukiyaki Western Django," Miike's 2007 Eastern-Western. Instead, he has taken his virtuous-few-against-evil-many story line — a genre perennial — to the outer limits of his formidable talent and energy.