Cult director Takeshi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) leaps into familiar territory with a political samurai movie red with blood and action.
At the end of Japan’s feudal era, a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to stop a sadistic warlord’s rise to the Shogunate, threatening to return the country to the Age of War.
Miike’s homage to Kurosawa, set in a peaceful 1844, sees the recruitment of an elite group of honourable men by the stately warrior Shinzaemon in a serious, introspective first half. These are men who feel themselves to be truly the last samurai, when the age of heroic swordsmen is over. And such is the evil ambition of the vicious, sadistic Lord Naritsugu, this is the honourable suicide mission to save the nation. Continue Reading