I am a film student at the University of Santa Cruz and recently had to give a presentation on the remake of Yojimbo into Fistful of Dollars in front of a Berkley professor who has devoted a lot of research into Japanese cinema. He gave a lecture on Miike specifically which—going with our course material—focused on Sukyaki Western Django and the comparison of national cinema with filmic appropriation. I was super impressed with how he analyzed the very beginning of that film and as much as I thought I loved Miike…I walked away thinking there was so much I never realized this director was trying to get across in his films.

I had watched 13 Assassins about a week before this lecture and I immediately loved it. I think that Miike’s intention was always to produce this film within a nationalist perspective, but at the same time through a more western lens (to further the point of the article: we as westerners are constantly subject to a suicidal code of honor we never fully reconcile with).

I think that it might be that he intentionally put the bulls into the film to startle the eye and to make a subtle comment about general zealousness or extremism. Doing any research on the imagery of burning bulls eventually comes back to religion (usually Catholicism) and even before (Phalaris’ Brazen Bull).

But I do agree, the CG was a little lacking. It’s Miike. He has never been known for his CG (though Yokia War was awesome) and opts instead for excessive imagery to hammer in a concept.

Just something I was thinking about.

-Amani