Japan Synopsis
十三人の刺客
“A group of assassins come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord.”
A sadistic Daimyo (feudal lord) rapes a woman and murders both her and her husband, but even when one of his own vassals commits suicide to bring attention to the crime, the matter is quickly hushed up. Not only will there be no punishment, but because the Daimyo is the Shogun's younger brother, he will soon be appointed to a high political position from which he could wreak even more havoc. Convinced that the fate of the Shogunate hangs in the balance, a plot is hatched to assassinate the Daimyo. The two most brilliant strategic minds of their generation find themselves pitted against each other; one is tasked to defend a man he despises, and has a small army at his disposal. The other is given a suicide mission, and has 12 brave men. They are the 13 Assassins.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with 13 Assassins. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Toei Company
Adventure + Action in Japan
1030 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Adventure and Action genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding 13 Assassins itself).
The 1962–1964 Japan Window
13 Assassins holds position #11 of 58 Japan films in the 1962–1964 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1960s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1960s in Japan, 202 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when 13 Assassins premiered alongside 14 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 14 other Japan films in 1963.
The 184th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
32 audience reviews — more than 52% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 40th percentile among Japan films.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on 13 Assassins, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- edo period · 19
- bushi · 9
- samurai · 128
- jidaigeki · 61
- assassin · 47
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,445 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (68th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.5 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Adventure productions specifically: #553 of 1,216 (top 45%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Toei Company, Animeigo |
| Runtime | 2h 5m |
| Release Date | December 7, 1963 |
| IMDb | tt0057212 |