In mid 19th century Japan, 13 noble warriors stake their lives in an attempt to murder an evil noble who could plunge the peaceful country into war.
What follows is probably the most immense, 'small band fights big army' film ever. For starters the battle itself, of 13 vs 200, lasts for something like 40 minutes; a lengthy fight by any standard. Now this includes moments of speech making and posing, but even when that happens you can still here the battle in distance, showing it is still going on. That means the battle runs in effective real time; don't want to give away many details but lets just say 'blood bath' doesn't accurately describe it.
More than that, the film as a whole is simply brilliant. It makes a serious point of building the characters and story in a manner meant to make the audience choose their favourites and for good reason. The film also sets up the most evil son of bitch ever (seriously, if hitler, megatron, sauron and the sith lord had a baby it wouldn't be as bad).
This is one battle film where you can honestly say you aren;t just watching it for the violent samurai action (but lets be honest thats a big part of it). You can watch this film and say you love the story, like the characters or just want to see the villain die - which after ten minutes you are thinking even with out trying to.
