13 Assassins (2010 film)

13 Assassins
Original Japanese theatrical film poster
Directed by	Takashi Miike
Screenplay by	Daisuke Tengan
Story by	Shōichirō Ikemiya[1]
Based on	13 Assassins by Eiichi Kudo
Produced by	Michihiko Umezawa Minami Ichikawa Tôichirô Shiraishi Kazuomi Suzaki Hisashi Usui Takahiro Ohno Hirotsugu Yoshida Shigeji Maeda
Starring	Koji Yakusho Takayuki Yamada Yusuke Iseya Tsuyoshi Ihara Hiroki Matsukata Mikijirō Hira Gorō Inagaki Masachika Ichimura
Cinematography	Nobuyasu Kita[1]
Edited by	Kenji Yamashita[1]
Music by	Kōji Endō
Production companies	Sedic International[1] Recorded Picture Company[1]
Distributed by	Toho (Japan)[2] Artificial Eye (United Kingdom)[3][4]
Release dates	9 September 2010 (2010-09-09) (Venice Film Festival) 25 September 2010 (2010-09-25) (Japan)
Running time	141 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom[1] Japan[1]
Language	Japanese
Budget	$6 million[5]
Box office	$17.5 million[6]

13 Assassins (Japanese: 十三人の刺客, Hepburn: Jūsannin no Shikaku) is a 2010 samurai film directed by Takashi Miike, and starring Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Sōsuke Takaoka, Hiroki Matsukata, Kazuki Namioka and Gorō Inagaki. A remake of Eiichi Kudo's 1963 Japanese period drama film 13 Assassins, it is set in 1844 toward the end of the Edo period in which a group of thirteen assassins—comprising twelve samurai and a hunter—secretly plot to assassinate Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu, the murderous leader of the Akashi clan, to thwart his appointment to the powerful Shogunate Council.

The film marks the third collaboration in which Yamada and Takaoka co-starred, the first two being Crows Zero and Crows Zero 2, both directed by Miike. Principal photography took place over two months, from July to September 2009, in Tsuruoka, Yamagata, in northern Japan. The film opened in Japan on 25 September 2010 and in the United States on 29 April 2011. It received critical acclaim from western critics, who compared it favourably to Akira Kurosawa's oeuvre.