Nonureva Really Surprised!

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

svikasha The concept of ritual suicide in the form of Harakiri, otherwise known as Seppuku, has captivated western imaginations for centuries. Indeed, the very notion of suicide, for religious or social reasons is viewed with a feeling of disdain within the western mindset. However, ritual suicide held an important ceremonial role for members of the Samurai class in ancient Japan. Viewed as an important component of the Samurai's Bushido warrior code, Harakiri was often used as a punishment but was often done voluntarily as well. It was a matter of honor and upheld the tradition of the warrior code. Harakiri forces the audience to confront the brutality of such a tradition and questions the morality of it. During the film, the main character questions both Bushido and the authenticity of the warrior code. He asserts that Bushido is a mere facade rather than a symbol of discipline. Whether or not these assertions are true, is a question that Harakiri leaves for the audience to decide.During the Edo period of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, it was common for master less samurai who were known as Ronin to request to commit harakiri in the palace of feudal lords.In this tradition, a man who goes by the name of Tsugumo Hanshirō requests to commit suicide at a powerful feudal lord's courtyard. Masaki Kobayashi directed this film to start out slow with the old man Hanshirō narrating a story. The story is about how the powerful clan at the courtyard was responsible for the death of Hanshirō's entire family. The old man confronts the powerful feudal clan in such a calm and authoritative manner that the audience is left at the edge of their seats. Hanshirō's daughter was married to a poor Samurai that was so destitute that he had to sell his blade to care for his family. He has a young baby who unfortunately gets sick and becomes desperately in need of medicine. When Hanshirō's son in law came to the Li clan seeking alms for medicine, they chose to punish him for disgracefully giving up his Samurai sword by forcing him to disembowel himself in the Seppuku fashion using the only sword he had left: a dull bamboo katana. After covering the dramatic backstory, the movie masterfully builds up to the final conclusion where Hanshirō uses every last ounce of his Samurai abilities to fight his way into the feudal lord's compound to desecrate his hall. The sheer force of will and determination displayed by Hanshirō's character on-screen is a testament to the acting abilities of Tatsuya Nakadai.Despite being shot in black and white, the film is aesthetically appealing as it depicts idyllic Japanese villages and sword fights in Samurai graveyards. At the climax of the film, the greatest line of the film is spoken. Before the culminating final sword battle, the main character proudly proclaims, "Motome had indeed gone mad. But I say good for him! I praise him for it. He may have been a samurai, but he was a man of flesh and blood. He could not live on air alone. When he has reached the point of no return, even a man as strong as Motome will go mad trying to protect his family, and I would praise him for it. They'll call him the bamboo ronin. Not only samurai, but townspeople, too, will scoff at his wavering. But let them laugh all they want. Who can fathom the depths of another man's heart?".

elvircorhodzic HARAKIRI is an action drama about an unfortunate fate and an ironic revenge of a ronin.A ronin arrives at an estate of one clan and says that he wishes to commit seppuku (hara kiri) within the courtyard of their palace. To deter him, a senior counselor tells him the story about a young ronin who is looking for a way to commit seppuku, but set of circumstances has made his death a slow, painful and humiliating. Despite this warning a poor ronin insists that he has never heard that story and says that he has no intention of leaving their palace alive. After a suicide pavilion is set up in the courtyard of the palace, the ronin is asked to name the samurai who shall behead him when the ritual is complete. Coincidentally, he has chose three samurai who have participated in the ritual of the unfortunate young ronin from the counselor's story. However, all three decline to come, saying they are suffering from a life-threatening illness. The ronin has laughed ironically and started his shocking confession...This is a very dramatic and tragic story with a very strong final climax. That ritualistic form of suicide is further reinforce the impression of a dark atmosphere. The main villain is a certain kind of a corrupt lord. A desperate and poor hero slowly serves his revenge, with the intent to humiliate and embarrass his opponents. An ancient tradition, political conflicts and shattered pride follow his painful confession. Mr. Kobayashi has enriched a tense situation with a vivid and sad retrospectives. The final battle is truly magnificent, even an occasional shred of theatricality has its role. Characterization is pretty good. Tatsuya Nakadai (Tsugumo Hanshirō) has offered an excellent performance as a desperate and poor, but focused and brave ronin.The brutality and an attack in the agony give us an entirely new expression of the ancient samurai world.

popcorninhell American ethos has always had a soft-spot for the conscientious objector. We're a nation of fervent individualists and everything from the writings of Mark Twain to the film 12 Angry Men (1957) codifies that idea. The power of an individual against a torrent of common corruption and blind group-think is almost fetishized, especially in contemporary society. The Japanese, generally speaking, don't have such a provocative streak of individualism embedded in their culture. So it's interesting that one of the most eloquent and austerely beautiful films on the subject should come from the land of the rising sun. Harakiri is a repudiation of the collective values of Japan that, on its best days unites a population in tragedy and at its worst marches a people towards war.Hanshiro Tsugumo (Nakadai) is an aging and embittered samurai whose feudal lord has died in battle along with most of his men. In order to reclaim his honor, according to the bushido code, Tsugumo must disembowel himself in a ritual suicide known as seppuku. To do this he arrives at the feet of Saito Kageyu (Mikuni) and asks members of the Iyi daimyo to help him do the ceremony correctly. Kageyu is hesitant as only a few days ago a similar request was made by another ronin who had no intention of committing seppuku but was looking to extort the clan for money. After Kageyu retells the man's tale, which culminates in the ronin dying by the blade of a bamboo sword, Tsugumo insists his intentions are to die with honor. Yet as the pavilion where the deed is to be done is setup, questions remain. What is Tsugumo's connection to the earlier ronin? Why did he pick the courtyard of the Iyi clan out of all others? Finally does he really intent to reclaim his honor, or is there something else going on?Told in a dizzying array of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Harakiri is not a leisurely movie to watch while folding laundry. It demands the attention of the viewer and weaves a complex tale of Hanshiro Tsugumo's home life after the fall of his clan. He's stricken with the most dire poverty, contemplating his daughter's (Iwashita) sale as a concubine and working menial jobs just to get by. His daughter, son-in-law Motome (Ishihama) and infant grandson Kingo are his only solace from a life of dishonor. Their fates become intimately intertwined with Tsugumo and the Iyi clan in unexpected ways and paying close attention to the plot pays off stunningly in the end.In his own quiet and ultimately unsettling way director Masaki Kobayashi strips away the nobility and romanticism commonly associated with feudal Japan. While doing so he implicates the modern audience (at the time the Japanese public circa 1962) in tolerating authoritarianism under the guise of honor. Harakiri recalls and parallels the days of Japanese imperialism and uses a single individual as a means to take apart the misplaced hubris of anyone still beholden to the old guard. Kobayashi himself was drafted in the army during WWII but repeatedly refused promotion beyond that of a private; his own way of fighting corruption, hypocrisy and evil.The film comes to a conclusion so damning and memorable that I dare not ruin the satisfaction of watching it for the first time. Harakiri is an absolute treasure featuring a star turn by Nakadai who first made an indelible mark on Japanese screens in Kobayashi's The Human Condition Trilogy (1959-1961). Here, while playing a character much older than himself, he still has a certain inner- turmoil that channels James Dean with a strong baritone. Finally there's Kobayashi's masterful direction which watches pensively and almost perversely as the jigsaw pieces fall in place.

PimpinAinttEasy Dear Masaki Kobayashi, I am not a big fan of Japanese cinema or the Samurai genre. I have watched a few Kurosawas and Ozus and that's it. But things might change with Hara-Kiri which must be one of the greatest revenge films of all time.Your film was was riveting. Objectively speaking, this is one of the best films I've watched in my life. But then I'm a really subjective movie watcher.I really enjoyed the quite beginning. With people walking whisperingly across corridors. I also enjoyed the formal, hierarchical and ritualistic nature of the interactions between various characters and the storytelling. There is something very precise about the way each shot is framed - the men sitting in straight lines ready to attack, the way various objects are placed and also the interiors of the house of Iyi.The first Hara-Kiri scene of Motome Chijiiwa was cruel and sickening. The film is a suspenseful revenge thriller with lots of drama and social commentary.I'm sure the final sword fight scene inspired the one in Old Boy. And this film must have in someway inspired The Hateful Eight - men taking each other on in a really closed space, narrating stories etc.I wasn't that impressed by Tatsuya Nakadai. His beard seemed a bit artificial. I was also a bit bored in the middle when Tsugumo narrates the story of his daughter and her child.But these are minor charges.Best Regards, Pimpin.(9/10)