‘What befalls others today, may be your own fate tomorrow...’
Japanese cinema is a beautiful and storied thing. From the classic works of Akira Kurosawa to manga via the incredible oeuvre of Studio Ghibli to J-horror, the Land of the Rising Sun is responsible for some of the most celebrated cinematic achievements of all time. Hara-Kiri, Masaki Kobayashi’s masterpiece, sits at 47th in the IMDB #250, and yet it hasn’t made much of a cultural splash in the western world. God knows why…
It is 1630 and the samurai rule Japan. The Iyi clan are inundated with requests from hungry samurai to commit seppuku on their grounds. This is the act of disembowelling one’s self before being decapitated. After receiving a couple of days of food and shelter, the offending samurai invariably run off with their heads intact. In an attempt to stop this from happening again, the Iyi clan offer no such escape route to Chijiiwa Motome (Akira Ishihama). After refusing his request for a day’s delay, he is forced to cut himself upon with a bamboo sword. Later, Tsugumo HanshirÅ (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the palace with a similar request and a story to tell.
Much of Hara-Kiwi takes place in flashback form as Tsugumo regales the clan with his own sorry tale. Master director Kobayashi keeps things simple in these sequences, not in terms of cinematography which is breathtakingly beautiful throughout, but in terms of plot. Whereas I found The Seven Samurai difficult to follow in places, Hara-Kiri is closer to a Grimm fairy tale than it is to the work of Kurosawa.
For those familiar with the cinematic legacy of the samurai, much here will be familiar. But that doesn’t detract from the film’s raw power, and the final sequence really is a sight to behold. The bloody conclusion serving as a precursor to the physical ingenuity of Bruce Lee and his peers.
Japanese cinema is an intimidating nut to crack but for those looking for a starting point, Hara-Kiri should be the first port of call. One of the best samurai films ever made.