1963 • Japan • Directed by Eiichi Kudō

By 1963 Eiichi Kudo was already a jidaigeki veteran. But for 13 Assassins, he decided to buck the emerging trend for colourful, family-friendly samurai films and renew with the radical traditions of the genre. The resulting film is a compelling and suspenseful samurai drama that remains impactful to this day.

In 1844, during the twilight of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the fiendish and immoral Lord Naritsugu Matsudaira (Kantaro Suga, The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses) flouts any sense of decency, openly insulting his fellow lords, culminating in his murder of a samurai’s son after having raped his wife. Aware that Mastudaira’s proximity to the Shogun protects him from any accountability, Lord Doi (Tetsuro Tanba, Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War) decides that justice must be done. He tasks his dutiful samurai Shinzaemon (Chiezo Kataoka, Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji) to gather his most trusted warriors to assassinate Matsudaira. But Shinzaemon and his men must reckon with the magnitude of their mission: breaking their oath means not only certain death but would shake the very foundations of Japanese society.

A thrilling tale of honour and intrigue set against the backdrop of the corrupt Tokugawa Shogunate, 13 Assassins set the tone for what would become Eiichi Kudo’s trademark style. Lush black and white cinematography, a haunting score by Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube and a memorable performance from Kataoka as the weary yet unwavering Shinzaemon come together to form a masterwork of jidaigeki cinema.