Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

I love Japanese cinema. Wait, let me clarify that. I love a certain style of Japanese cinema (yeah, that's better). The style I love is usually in the Akira Kurosawa vein. Full screen action, marvelous symmetry, magnificent costumes, emotional close-ups, and the occasional overacting (no one's perfect). Kurosawa was a master and like all masters, they spawn, for the lack of a better word disciples. Now to be fair and honest, I don't know if legendary director Takahi Miike is a disciple or for that matter, even a fan of Kurosawa but his latest film, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai certainly makes him appear to be. That's a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai is a remake of the 1962 classic Harakiri (Seppuku) directed by the award winning Masaki Kobayashi. Now I never saw the original but I am certainly glad I got to see the remake. Takahi Miike is known for his over the top method of film making (see his marvelous 13 Assassins if you doubt me) but this time around he has found remarkable restraint. If you can get past this film being in 3D which I still don't understand why that is, it is a very easy film to love. The key cast includes Eita as Motome, Hikari Mitsushima as Miho, the talented Koji Yakusho as Kageyu, and the enigmatic Ebizo Ichikawa as Hanshiro Tsugumo. Those four carry this move across the finish line in such a way as I have never seen done before. It was an honor to watch them at their craft.

The story is a peculiar one and at first, if you haven't seen the original, you won't have the foggiest idea what's going on or where you are being taken. The story begins with a man, a Ronin...wait, are you familiar with Samurai and Ronin? Brief edification, Samauri are warriors who are led by a Shogun or Lord and if that Lord dies (or in most cases) killed then the Samauri become Ronin. Ronin are vagabonds, penniless wanderers who have lost face in the eyes of society because they allowed their lord to be killed. In the case of this story a Ronin comes to the noble house of li and asks to use their courtyard to commit seppuku (suicide). If a Ronin kills himself in a noble house then they regain some of that respect they have lost.

While there the Ronin who is played by Ebizo is told a tale how last year another Ronin who claimed to be from his same clan came to the house of li making the same request. Ebizo's character Hanshiro was told that the Ronin was actually there for a "suicide bluff" which was all the rage those days since one Ronin took money from a Shogun instead of killing himself. That started a new trend and this other Ronin tried the same thing. Then the movie takes you in a completely different direction, one you don't see coming and it's so heart warming and heartbreaking sometimes at the same time. The morale of the tale is if tradition is what brings you to this point, what good is tradition?

Ryuichi Sakamoto, the man behind the music for Babel (a score I own) is responsible for the sweet yet sparse score and this film was shot so gracefully by Nobuyasu Kita. I highly recommend this film if you have a thing for feudal Japan like I do, have a thing for Samurai (again like I do), or you have two hours to spare and you're looking for something worthwhile to do with them...see this movie and I'll see you at the theater.