Harakiri (1962 film)

Harakiri (1962 film)

·       introduction

Harakiri (切腹 Seppuku, 1962) may be a 1962 Japanese jidaigeki (period-drama) film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The story takes place between 1619 and 1630 throughout the Edo amount and also the rule of the Tokugawa absolutism. It tells the story of Hanshirō Tsugumo, a warrior without a lord.[3] At the time, it was common for masterless samurai, or rōnin, to request to commit seppuku (harakiri) in the palace court within the hope of receiving charity from the remaining social system lords.

• Cast

Tatsuya Nakadai - Tsugumo Hanshirō (津雲 半四郎)

Rentarō Mikuni - Saitō Kageyu (斎藤 勘解由)

Akira Ishihama - Chijiiwa Motome (千々岩 求女)

Shima Iwashita - Tsugumo Miho (津雲 美保)

Tetsurō Tamba - Omodaka Hikokuro (沢潟 彦九郎)

Ichiro Nakatani - Yazaki Hayato (矢崎 隼人)

Masao Mishima - Inaba Tango (稲葉 丹後)

Kei Satō - Fukushima Masakatsu (福島 正勝)

Yoshio Inaba - Chijiiwa Jinai (千々岩 陣内)

Yoshiro Aoki - Kawabe Umenosuke (川辺 右馬介)

·        Themes

The film presents a negative read of the rising structure at the start of the seventeenth century, depicting the hypocrisy in the flimsy pretext of honor exhibited by the daimyō. At the time, seppuku was seen as a means to retain one's honor after a disgrace or after losing ones daimyō or master.[citation needed] The vanity of the feudal lord's counselor Saitō is also shown: the outward appearance of honor is shown to be more important to him than real honor. He orders the retainers disgraced by Hanshirō to perform seppuku, and makes sure that those who were slain or had their topknots cut off by Hanshirō are written off as casualties to malady so his house wouldn't seem weak. An ironic comment seems once Hanshirō is ready to oppose a good several retainers with a brand, yet is helpless against three guns; a foreshadow of the Meiji Restoration, wherein sword-bearing samurai were defeated by the "new" Japanese military.

• Release

Harakiri was discharged in Japan in 1962. The film was released by Shochiku Film of America with English subtitles in the United States in December 1963.

• Reception

In a up to date review, the Monthly Film Bulletin stated that Masaki Kobayashi's "slow, measured cadence perfectly matches his subject" and that the "story itself is beautifully constructed". The review praised Tatsuya Nakadai's performance as "brilliant, Mifune-like performance" and noted that the film was "on occasion brutal, particularly in the young samurai's terrible agony with his bamboo sword" as "some critics have remarked...that being gory is not the best way to deplore wanton bloodshed, Harakiri still looks splendid with its measured tracking shots, its slow zooms, its reflective overhead shots of the courtyard, and its frequent poised immobility."".

• Awards

The film was entered within the competition class at the 1963 urban center festival. It lost the Palme d'Or to The Leopard, but received the Special Jury Award.harakiri 1962

• Remakes

The moving picture was remade by Japanese director Takashi Miike as a 3D moving-picture show named Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai in 2011. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

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