13 Assassins review

A man of many talents, most of them to do with genius cinema violence, Takashi Miike (Audition) returns with a devoutly classical, if not exactly classic, remake of a 1963 period samurai film.

After assembling his (not so) dirty (baker’s) dozen, Koji Yakusho ambushes an evil lord’s army, despite being suicidally outnumbered.

All politics and posturing, the first two-thirds of the film are stiff and uninvolving, and although the climatic 45-minute free-for-all is genuinely spectacular, it’s clear where the director’s heart lies.

“I thought samurai would be fun!” whines one chap. So did we.