Jûsan-nin no shikaku
In 1844 in Japan as the Tokugawa Shogunate faces extinction, Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu of Akashi rapes, tortures, and murders his own citizens at will. He is protected because the Shogun is his half-brother. Sir Doi Toshitsura, the Shogun's Justice, realizes the situation will become more dangerous after Naritsugu ascends to a higher political position. After a wronged party publicly commits seppuku as a way of showing disdain for Lord Naritsugu, Sir Doi seeks out a trusted older samurai, Shimada Shinzaemon, who served under the former shogun. Sir Doi secretly hires him to assassinate Naritsugu. However, Naritsugu's loyal retainers – led by Hanbei, an old contemporary of Shinzaemon – learn of the plot by spying on Doi's meetings.
Shinzaemon gathers eleven more samurai, whom Sir Doi knows can be trusted including Shinzaemon's nephew, Shinrokurō. The twelve plan to ambush Naritsugu on his official journey from Edo back to his lands in Akashi. However just before they leave, Hanbei arrives and warns his old colleague that he will suffer grave consequences if he tries to kill Naritsugu.
The group, with the legal authority and financial assistance of Sir Doi, buy the help of town Ochiai in order to create a trap. They also enlist the help of a minor lord whose daughter-in-law was raped and son murdered by Naritsugu. With troops, he blocks the official highway forcing Naritsugu to head for the town and the trap. During the assassins own journey to the town, they are attacked by ronin paid off by Hanbei to kill the plotters. The group decides to head through the mountains but end up getting lost. In the process they encounter a hunter named Kiga Koyata who becomes their guide; Shinzaemon eventually recruits him as the thirteenth assassin.
The town is converted into a elaborate maze of booby traps and camouflaged fortifications. However, when Naritsugu and his retinue arrive their numbers have been swelled with additional troops. The thirteen assassins are no longer facing seventy men-at-arms; now, there are two hundred. A lengthy battle follows with Naritsugu and his guards trapped inside the village and attacked on all sides by arrows, explosives, knives, and swords—with the exception of Koyata who fights with rocks in slings. Against this carnage, the deranged noble Naritsugu, is elated by the violence. He tells Hanbei that when he ascends to the Shogun's counsel he will bring back the wars of the Sengoku period.
Slowly the assassins are killed but not before they inflict heavy damage on the Akashi forces. Eventually, Naritsugu and Hanbei are cornered by Shizaemon and Shinrokurō. After Shizaemon kills Hanbei, Naritsugu kicks his loyal retainers head away insulting the elder samurai. Contemptuously, Naritsugu announces that both the people and samurai have only one purpose and that is to serve their lords. But Shizaemon counters by telling Naritsugu that lords can't live without the support of the people, and that if a lord abuses his power the people will always rise against them. Naritsugu and Shinzaemon both mortally wound each other. As the lord crawls away in mud crying and experiencing fear and pain for the first time, he thanks Shinzaemon for showing him excitement before Shinzaemon chops his head off.
After Shinzaemon dies, Shinrokurō wanders through the carnage. He meets the hunter Koyata who has made a miraculous recovery after being stabbed in the neck by Naritsugu. The pair then make their own ways out of the town. An epilogue states that the Shogun and his government covered up what really occurred announcing that Naritsugu died of illness on the journey back to his lands. In twenty-three years, the Tokugawa Shogunate would be overthrown with the Meiji Restoration.
violence