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I love Miike but this is definitely a step-up from his usual stuff, in fact I think it's really only equal to AUDITION in his filmography.
Now I'm a nut for samurai films, so I was immediately going to adore the film anyways, but I kind of liked how this film took usual samurai themes and explored them in different ways. A lot of the 'great' Samurai films deal with the conflict between what is right and what is necessary, what the heart wants and what the status-quo will allows. As such the great Samurai films tend to be about characters going against the grain, becoming rebels within a system that they can no longer take part in. What strikes me about 13 ASSASSINS is that in intent Lord Naritsugu, as Bailey pointed out in his amazing post, is the character most dislocated from the system and status quo. He's the force of change which seeks to shift the equilibrium and who is bound by his position, but whilst most Samurai protagonists are rendered inert by the tropes of feudal society, Naritsugu is sort of muzzled and corralled by it. He's a shithead, but he's also trapped within his own little world and there's this seeming radius of destruction that emanates from him.
What is also interesting is that the Assassin's themselves break the status quo of honourable combat. Most Samurai films tend to have the antagonists finally dispatch the protagonist by use of rifle or subterfuge as the protagonist is unmatched in honourable combat. In this film the protagonists know that an honourable fight is not what will win the day and the film seems to be about the assassin's slowly disassembling their own code so that they can become more ruthless, pragmatic, killing machines.
