Lord Naritsugu (Gorô Inagaki) is a royal terror, and the court fears Caligula-like horrors should he come into his royal succession. Samurai Shinzaemon Shimada (Kôji Yakusho) is secretly recruited to preclude this possibility with his sword, leading the title’s dirty baker’s dozen on a hit-job quest. Set in 1844, in the closing days of the Shogunate, the expository chapters show a world where the great battles have already been fought—so bored Naritsugu whiles the hours away with unblinking sadism. (Otherwise closely adapting a 1963 film,... More >>>