The tag line tells you almost all you need to know about the story:  “A group of assassins come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord.”  It doesn’t tell you how good the film is, and it doesn’t tell you that these guys are Samurai warriors.

Beautifully photographed and well executed directorially (oooooh…I guess that is a bit of a bad pun, though not intended that way), I was drawn into the story early on and stayed involved with the characters and invested in killing the bad guy until the very end (he’s a REALLY, REALLY BAD guy by the way).

Funny, though, what I consider most when I think of 13 Assassins are the colors, mainly rich shades of green and muted shades of gray, and a curiously intense love story that is a slight part of the narrative but as indelible to me as the whisper of a true love’s name across time and space.

If the truncated love story is not appealing to you, perhaps the gory fight sequences will be.  Plenty of heads are going to roll, and some may even be kicked before the outcome is revealed.  Lots of action here…and a teeny bit of love.