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‘11 Rebels’ Review: A Dirty Near-Dozen Deliver the Goods in a Rip-Roaring Samurai Spectacle
Gallons of blood and plenty of thematic thunder distinguish Kazuya Shiraishi’s energetic action film set during the Boshin civil war.
In the broader scope of samurai cinema, it combines the chamber drama formality of the genre’s Akira Kurosawa-led 1950s and ’60s heyday with the bloody extravagance of more recent examples such as Takashi Miike’s “Blade of the Immortal.” Akani (Ukon Onoe) is a lanky and likable gambler; handsome guy Nimaime (Hayate Ichinose) was in the clink for simply looking the wrong way at a soldier’s wife, and a fearsome customer known as “Cut-em-down” (Ryota Oyanagi) is a serial killer determined to up his tally. A handsome and fiercely loyal fighter who begins to suspect his superiors have sold everybody out, Washio’s heroism serves as a nice counterpoint to the sneaky villainy of Irie (Shuhei Nomura), a fellow officer with close links to scheming Shibata heavy Mizoguchi (Sadao Abe), who has no intention of allowing any rebels to walk free when the fighting’s done.
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