Music
Chris Parker

The Samurai Conquistadors with Lollipop Factory and The Forever Years
9 p.m. Friday
Opolis, 113 N. Crawford, Norman
opolis.org, 820-0951
$7

Action
Rod Lott
Proof that "13 Assassins" isn't your everyday Takashi Miike film: The opening scene depicts a man committing hara-kiri, and just as the sword is about to be inserted into his stomach, the director cuts away.

Western
Rod Lott
Before he became Itay’s master of horror, Dario Argento knocked out a few screenplays, including one of Sergio Leone's legendary Western epics, Once Upon a Time in the West. Lesser-known is 1969's The Five Man Army. That's too bad, because it brings an “international all-star team” approach to the spaghetti Western, and doesn’t forget the all-aces Ennio Morricone score!

Drama
Rod Lott
Vanguard director Takashi Miike is not one to repeat himself, and in Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, he hasn't — not really. Yes, the film is the Japanese filmmaker's follow-up to 2010's 13 Assassins; yes, both are remakes and focused on samurais. But they approach the genre from such varying ways that other than excellence, the similarities end there.