13 Assassins (Jûsan-nin no Shikaku)
DFI Japanese Cinema Showcase at the MIA
Takashi Miike
/ Feature Narrative / Japan / 2010 / 126 min / Colour / DigiBeta
In Japanese / Arabic, English subtitles
Interests: Action, Drama, Adventure
N/A
Rated: Suitable for viewers 15 and over. Parental guidance advised. Viewers under 15 must be accompanied by an adult.
Screenings
Synopsis
Cult director Takashi Miike delivers a bravado period action film about a group of elite samurai who are secretly enlisted to bring down a sadistic feudal lord in order to prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war torn future.
As part of its year-round screening series, Doha Film Institute (DFI) presents a showcase of acclaimed works from the rich and diverse cinematic tradition of Japan. The showcase is part of the Qatar Japan 2012 initiative, marking the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The series will feature classic and modern films, celebrating some of the masters, stars, genres and studios that have made Japan a leader in world cinema. Screenings will take place over the last weekend of every month at the Museum of Islamic Art auditorium from March to September.
A portion of proceeds from ticket sales will go to the ROTA Tsunami Relief Fund.
About the Director
Takashi Miike was born in the small town of Yao on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan. His main interest growing up was motorbikes, and for a while he harbored ambitions to race professionally. At the age of 18 he went to study at the film school in Yokohama founded by renowned director Shôhei Imamura, primarily because there were no entrance exams. By his own account Miike was an undisciplined student and attended few classes, but when a local TV company came scouting for unpaid production assistants, the school nominated the one pupil who never showed up: Miike. He spent almost a decade working in television, in many different roles, before becoming an assistant director in film to, amongst others, his old mentor Imamura. The ‘V-Cinema’ (Direct to Video) boom of the early 1990s was to be Miike's break into directing his own films, as newly formed companies hired eager young filmmakers willing to work cheap and crank out low-budget action movies. Miike's first theatrically distributed film was ‘Shinjuku kuroshakai: Chaina mafia sensô’ (1995) (Shinjuku Triad Society), and from then on he alternated V-Cinema films with higher-budgeted pictures. His international breakthrough came with ‘Audition’ (1999), and since then he has an ever expanding cult following in the west. A prolific director, Miike has directed (at the time of this writing) 60+ films in his 13 years as director, his films being known for their explicit and taboo representations of violence and sex, as seen in such works as ‘Visitor Q’ (2001), ‘Ichi the Killer’ (2001) and the Dead or Alive Trilogy: ‘Dead or Alive’ (1999), ‘Dead or Alive 2: Tôbôsha’ (2000) and ‘Dead or Alive: Final’ (2002).
Credits
- Director
- Takashi Miike
- Screenwriter
- Daisuke Tengan, based on the story by Shoichirou Ikemiya
- Editor
- Kenji Yamashita
- Production Designer
- Yuji Hayashida
- Music
- Koji Endo
- Cinematographer
- Nobuyasu Kita
- Distributor
- Front Row Entertainment
- Cast
- Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya