Harakiri

Seppuku

Japan

1962

133 Min

Black and White

2.35:1

Japanese

Currently 4.6/5 Stars.
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CAST Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita, Tetsurô Tamba, Masao Mishima, Ichirô Nakaya, Kei Satô, Yoshio Inaba, Hisashi Igawa, Tôru Takeuchi, Yoshirô Aoki, Tatsuo Matsumura, Akiji Kobayashi, Kôichi Hayashi, Ryûtarô Gomi, Jô Azumi, Nakajirô Tomita, Shichisaburô Amatsu, Kenzô Tanaka, Shin Nakahara, Tsuneo Ikeda, Minoru Miyagi, Takaaki Kadota, Ichirô Yamamoto, Gen Takasugi, Satoshi Nishida, Tetsurô Komiyama, Shûichirô Narita, Noboru Kasuga, Shinpachi Kura, Kenji Hayashi, Shôtarô Hayashi, Shimezô Kataoka, Fumiya Ozawa, Kônosuke Takemoto, Rentarô Mikuni

Following the collapse of his clan, unemployed samurai Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to commit ritual suicide on his property. Iyi’s clansmen, believing the desperate ronin is merely angling for charity, try to force him to eviscerate himself—but they have underestimated his honor and his past. Winner of the 1963 Cannes Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize, Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri is a scathing denouncement of feudal authority and hypocrisy. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Masaki Kobayashi

Masaki Kobayashi (小林正樹, Kobayashi Masaaki, February 14, 1916–October 4, 1996) was a Japanese director.

Among his films is Kwaidan (1965), a collection of four ghost stories drawn from the book by Lafcadio Hearn, each of which has a surprise ending.

Kobayashi also directed The Human Condition, a trilogy on the effects of World War II on a Japanese pacifist and socialist. The total length of the films is over 9 hours. Other notable films include Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967). Harakiri won him an award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, solidifying his place in the history of cinema.

He was also a candidate for directing the Japanese sequences for Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) but instead Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda were chosen.

Kobayashi, himself a pacifist, was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, but refused to fight and refused promotion to a rank higher than private. —Wikipedia

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AKFilmFan

16May13

Individual vs Society (gone wrong) is on full display in this visceral anti-samurai flick with an ending of such power, defiance, and hopelessness that it makes your heart break.

Ryan Pearce

1May13

In my opinion, an absolute masterpiece. It has been a while between viewings, so this leaps to the top of my 'to watch' list.

Lorna Singh

18Apr13

To understand the actions of others and the courage it takes to not do the traditional thing. Heartbreaking.

DT

26Mar13

Dank, intimate jidaigeki amidst Kobayashi’s smooth modernist lines, distinguishing against Kurosawa’s analogous fables (besides, consonant most with the modern corruption indictment of his Bad Sleep Well). Here, the darker undertones of the seppuku honour - the emasculating disparities betwixt samurai class + code - underlined, through its intercutting narrative - so swift and slight as to emphasise the chronic, internecine opprobrium. Though its dramatic espousals precariously balance against the dynamic sensory elements, a grimly elegant viscera surely takes hold.