Entertainment

13 Assassins

Takashi Miike, Japan’s pro lific (83 movies in 20 years!) master of mayhem, wastes no time in getting down to the nitty-gritty in “13 Assassins.”

It opens with a gentleman in 1844 Japan committing harikari. Miike never lets the camera go below the man’s chest, so we’re spared most of the gore. But that doesn’t mean Miike — director of “Audition,” “Ichi the Killer” and “Gozu” — is mellowing.

There’s lots of bloodletting ahead in this homage to Akira Kurosawa’s “The Seven Samurai”: severed heads, dripping blood, a naked woman hobbling about minus her legs and hands, the cutting out of tongues, a woman and her children being slaughtered by arrows.

And let’s not forget the spectacular battle — 13 samurai vs. 200 bad guys — that takes up the final third of the movie. (Kurosawa’s “Ran” comes to mind.)

Koji Yakusho (“Shall We Dance?”) stars as the boss samurai, who’s hired to get rid of a Khadafy-like lord. The samurai are outnumbered, for sure, but they have a diabolical idea, changing a peaceful mountain village into a fiery deathtrap.

The ensuing battle is a pulse-quickening masterpiece that would please the mighty Kurosawa.

“13 Assassins” is a must-see for Miike’s passionate legion of fans. But even action buffs who’ve never seen any of his films before will be drawn in by this masterful exercise in cinematic butchery.

We eagerly await the debut of Miike’s first 3-D movie, “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai,” which next month becomes the first 3-D flick shown in competition in Cannes. Beware the squirting blood.