A sublime period drama from director Kobayashi, Harakiri is a tale of revenge and an indictment of the hypocrisy of the samurai code of honor. The film tells the story of an elderly ronin (a samurai without a master) who turns up at the estate of a feudal lord, requesting permission to perform a ritual suicide on his grounds and asks the lords three chief swordsmen to act as his seconds. But when the time for the ritual suicide arrives, none of the men show up, thereby disgracing the ritual and the ronin. At that point the ronin starts explaining the story of how he ended up on the estate and his true motivations and intentions slowly become known as a deeply dramatic story unfolds. A stunningly composed film shot in stark black and white, Harakiri is a slow burn with a huge pay-off and a clear assault on the samurais sacred code of honor, which could easily be exploited and turned up its head. The film won the Special Jury Award at Cannes.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 12:38:17 +0000