If you are unfamiliar with Takashi Miike’s varied body of work, he is the original brilliant mind that brought us amongst many others such twisted ingenious works as; the Black Society Trilogy, Audition, Gozu, Dead or Alive, western Sukiyaki Western Django that includes a cameo from Miike fan Quentin Tarantino, The Man in White, the Box segment in Three... Extremes, Ring throwback One Missed Call and the classic Ichi the Killer as well as off the wall fare such as Zebraman. Although much of his work is Yakuza based his films cover a range of genres and themes that vary from allegorical tales through gore to family friendly tales. As well as film, his works span live performance kotobuki, TV shows as well as acting – he was the Japanese business man in Eli Roth’s Hostel.But when Lord Naritsugu proves to be more brutal and heinous than any one can bear and after being personally affected senior official Sir Doi (Mikijiro Hira) calls on legendary ex Samurai Shinzaemon Shimada (Kôji Yakusho) to please intervene. Shinzaemon jumps at the chance to come out of his early retirement and it’s on.

Shinzaemon Shimada and Sir Doi rally all the help they can get. But not just anyone will do and only those deemed worthy can join the band of brothers, leaving them with a dozen trained men to fight a small army. And all knowing that in all likelihood this may be their final glorious job. A further complication is that Shinzaemon’s respectful rival from his military days is Lord Matsudaira’s reluctant head protector and he has as many strategic tricks up his sleeve as Shinzaemon. So the scene is set for a blood explosion as both parties head to the same small town.