13 Assassins (2010)

4/5

Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins is a precisely-constructed samurai movie. The plot centers around Shinzaemon (Yakusho), a samurai tasked with killing the evil Lord Naritsugu (Inagaki) for terrorizing innocent townspeople and committing sadistic acts of violence. Shinzaemon enlists the aid of 12 other fighters, including his nephew Shinrouko (Yamada) and the hunter Koyata (Iseya), but they must defeat 200 soldiers and Naritsugu's bodyguard Hanbei (Ichimura) first. With some trickery and bribery, they force Naritsugu to go through a small, booby-trapped town in the hopes of evening the score and successfully completing their mission.

Much like Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, the first half of the movie focuses on character development while the second half centers around the climactic battle itself. Miike does a remarkable job showing us just how depraved Lord Naritsugu is, using overwhelmingly graphic imagery to an almost nauseating level. There are a few other characters that are equally well-developed (Hanbei, Shinrouko, Koyata), but most are forgettable and basically interchangeable. I was not particularly impressed with the writing or acting; most of the dialogue felt stilted with performances that were equally wooden, although perhaps that is the point. The second half is exciting, but the filmmaking itself is fairly lackluster, with uninteresting cinematography and standard editing. One thing that made it harder to enjoy was that everybody looks so similar. It is almost impossible to differentiate the various samurai. All I could tell was that the good guys were in black. Still, this is a very good film and highly recommended for anyone who likes this genre.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1436045/

Babel (2006)

4.9/5

This is one of the most richly tapestried movies to show up in theaters this year, in plot, acting, and theme. The emotions, as in every Iñárritu movie, are explosive. Iñárritu really lets his actors give it their all. Layers upon layers of themes run rampant throughout, the main one being: miscommunication causes tragedy (à la Camus's famous Le Malentendu). But when that tragedy strikes, sadness is universal, heard loud and clear through silence. The story of the Japanese girl seems particularly out of place given the rest of the movie's plot, but it is only superficially so. Not only does it fit the main theme to a T, it also generates so many other themes (baring body vs. soul, being unable to hear vs. being unable to understand, distance and proximity, family and strangers, redemption and forgiveness, and many more) that I can see why Iñárritu decided to use it. By the way, the music is phenomenal. Its companion use with silence is so utterly devastating and haunting.

This movie is definitely not for everyone. It's an intense viewing experience and difficult to dissect; but such analysis is utterly necessary after watching this movie. Many will forgo trying to understand some parts and simply discard what made them uncomfortable because it's easier that way. Scenes often extend past their utility, forcing the viewer to question its meaning. That is not, however, an excuse for bad editing and overlong scenes, which Babel is not without. The coincidences and chain reactions sometime seem too constructed and planned for, a guilt similarly structured movies (like Crash) share. A lot of people are going to come into this movie expecting something similar to Crash; they are going to be very disappointed. Babel is hard to digest; its message isn't cookie-cutter simple and superficial or obvious. But for those it reaches, it's magnificent.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0449467/