1974 - What a Year

On to 1974. A great year in films. But, before we go on, let's recap on what happened outside the cinemas.

• Something important happens in Malaysia. No, I'm serious. Kuala Lumpur, the capital, is declared federal territory.
• Mia Farrow is on the cover of the first issue of People.
• ABBA win the Eurovision song contest. The only winning band that made it big internationally. Somehow people are still trying to win this thing. I don't get it.
• Deep Purple destroy the stage equipment so as not to be upstaged by ELP. They didn't need to, because ELP suck.
• Rumble in the Jungle. Not to be confused with Jethro Tull's amazing Bungle in the Jungle.
• Lucy is discovered (yay, Darwin!).

1963 ... What a Year!

Right, it had to come to this. A year that doesn't really deserve a What a Year post. But we will soldier on, overcome the obstabcles. Even though 1963 was short on films lacking the firepower of the years gone by, it still presented a considerably interesting bunch of films. And one absolute classic, which is number one. Obviously.

So, what else happened in the world in 1963 other than disappointment on the big screen. Here's the lowdown:

• Mona Lisa is exhibited for the first time in the US, paving the way for the turd that was "The Da Vinci Code"
• Female suffrage is enacted in Iran. Years before Switzerland. Somehow this did not have a happy ending.
• The Alcatraz Island penitentiary closes, paving the way for umpteen shitty films.
• ZIP codes are introduced in the US. Order is restored.
• Lamborghini wheels out first car. We are not worth it.
• First episode of "Doctor Who" is aired. No apology from BBC for the turd yet.

13 Assassins (2010)

Taksahi Miike's latest (although it's hard to keep a tab on his output as he is inhumanly prolific) is a remake of a 1963 film of the same name and owes a tad too much to the Kurosawa classic, Seven Samurai - perhaps the greatest of all samurai films, a benchmark with which every other jidaigeki is a unfairly measured. Unfair, because Seven Samurai is an indelible classic of grandiose action film-making.

13 Assassins offers a more than satisfactory action sequence, which eats up one half of the movie, in which cattle-on-fire, elaborate booby traps, and insane sword fighting ensue. This is the centrepiece of the story, in which 12 samurai and ronin, plus a wayward rambler-hunter, face a violent lord and his 200-strong personal army in a remote village in rural Japan.