LRA: 13 Assassins – Blu-ray Review

LRA writes: Takashi Miike has been hailed as a legendary filmmaker. I honestly never knew why. I admit to not seeing all of his filmography but the couple I had seen, Ichi the Killer and Audition, didn't exactly set my world on fire. I found Ichi to be a somewhat clumsy film that seemed to be going for an over the top exploitation vibe. Audition's big selling point was the last 20 to 30 minutes of that film and while I agree that finale is pretty shocking, it was and still is the only thing I took away from the experience. In other words Miike had not done anything to win me over as he apparently did with his fan base (working at a DVD store introduced me to many Ichi fans). So when I started hearing grand things about his new film 13 Assassins I kind of shrugged my shoulders to anyone that told me how great it was. I have never been so proud to be wrong though in my expectations. This is what I have come to consider Takashi Miike's crowning jewel, every director has at least one great film in him and this is his.