Movie Information
Overall Rank: 305
Average Rating: 3.3/4
# of Ratings: 32
Theatrical Release Date: 08/04/1964
Language: Japanese
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita, Tetsurô Tanba, Masao Mishima, Ichirô Nakatani
Plot: 17th-century Japan has entered a peaceful period - but it has also put thousands of Samurai out of work and into poverty. An elderly Samurai, looking to die an honorable death, approaches the home of a feudal lord to commit the ritual suicide hara-kiri. But when he hears the tale of his son-in-law - forced to commit the act in a barbaric fashion using a dull bamboo blade - instead of death, he seeks revenge. -- Chris Kavan
Quick Movie Reviews
Rating of
3/4
mitchellyoung - wrote on 01/15/2012
This brooding Japanese film is at its best when it ponders questions of honor, duty, and mortality. The flashback sequences are occasionally uneven and weirdly paced, within the context of the present story, but there are some poignant and effective moments. The final action scene is jarring, but, I guess, fits with the story.
Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
3.5/4
Deromanticizing Samurai Honour
cacb3995 - wrote on 09/14/2018
Lots have been said, written, sung, played and put to film about the Samurai mythos. In all contemporary works regarding these mythical warriors there is a common word that keeps popping up: honour. Samurai are presented as honourable soldiers that hold this principle in the highest of esteems. Yet, much like every other act of representation of groups of people or phenomenae of centuries gone by, it comes with a good deal of a romantization. The 1962 film “Harakiri”, directed by Masaki Kobayashi, questions this ideal of the samurai’s code of honour, and the result is an unforgettable jidaigeki that very well deserves to be held among the greatest achievements in japanese film history.
Set in the Edo period, the film tells the story of ronin Tsugumo Hanshiro (Tatsuya Nakadai), …
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