'13 Assassins': 1 of 2 big Takashi Miike remakes
G. Allen Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Takashi Miike has been making films for 20 years (83 in total), and only now is becoming something other than a cult favorite.
This month, he has a film in the Cannes Film Festival's official competition for the first time ("Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai"), and his fierce, impressive throwback samurai picture "13 Assassins" opens in the Bay Area.
At age 50, after years of direct-to-video films, low-budget gangster movies and bizarre cult items ("Ichi the Killer"), Takashi is Japan's top director, and its most famous.
"It's not my goal to make so many movies," Takashi said via Skype from Tokyo through an interpreter. "It's just sort of a natural process, and I'm just doing my job. And I'm not tied to any genre; I'm willing to do anything. I just keep going."
"13 Assassins" is a remake of a 1963 Japanese movie. There is an evil lord who threatens to drive the shogunate into a bloody, unnecessary war; a group of samurai band together with the single mission of killing the lord, and probably themselves in the process, thus saving the empire.
Starring Koji Yakusho ("Shall We Dance?"), it is an epic film with a masterfully directed 45-minute climactic battle.
"In terms of scale and the sheer logistics, particularly the big battle scene, ('13 Assassins') shows such a huge step forward for Miike - not only in what he can do, but also in what he is allowed to do by the industry," said Tom Mes, author of "Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike" and co-founder of the Japanese film website MidnightEye.com, in an e-mail to The Chronicle.
"He has shown in the past that he can overcome any hurdles and unexpected calamities when shooting and end up with a very impressive film. ... The main set for 'Sukiyaki Western Django' was blown away by a typhoon halfway through the shoot. He has proven his mettle artistically and logistically, and I believe this is why he is now the sole director in Japan capable of successfully mounting a movie of the scale of '13 Assassins.' "
Takashi is known for explicitly depraved sequences, and if it seems he's been held in check in "13 Assassins," consider that 25 minutes (including a graphic rape scene) were cut from the original Japanese version for this U.S. release. Still, Takashi does seem to be moving toward a more classic feel: "Hara-Kiri" is also a remake of an early 1960s Japanese film.
"I think that Japanese movies made at that time were much more interesting and more powerful," Takashi said. "For over half of the actors (of '13 Assassins'), it was their first time fighting with a sword. We had to train them. And of course, they didn't have any experience riding horses. ... So they were fighting for their lives as characters, but also as actors as well!"
As he enters his second half-century, Takashi is going strong. Any advice for the rest of us on how to keep up with such a busy schedule?
"Drink a lot and smoke a lot, like I do!" he laughs.