Samurai films exist within their own nexus of film history, all at once a tribute to the feudal Japanese eras and commentaries on modern times through a metaphoric lens. Akira Kurosawa’s name has all but become synonymous with the genre and his films are often held aloft as prime examples of classic Japanese filmmaking. Equally deserving of that praise is Masaki Kobayashi whom, with his Harakiri (or Seppuku), deconstructed the Samurai genre and built it in a new image: the anti-Samurai film, a stinging look at the hypocrisies inherent in a value-driven system taken to extremes. Harakiri has an elegant simplicity to its structure and yet the brilliance with which the plot unfolds and the performance of Tatsuya Nakadai as the sullen warrior with ulterior motives reciting a tale of woe makes it a riveting classic. It’s a beautifully crafted film in nearly every sense and The Criterion Collection has done Kobayashi’s masterpiece justice with its HD transfer that captures the cinematography that makes every image on the screen so striking.
When Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives on the doorstep of the Iyi clan’s property demanding he be allowed to commit harakiri within, they treat him with a degree of skepticism. After a recent war wiped out many of Japan’s lords, ronin have been wandering the countryside, slowly sliding into poverty and thus becoming desperate for money or food, and so many have resorted to threatening harakiri on the land of wealthy clans in a form of extortion they hope will see them turned away but with a few coins in hand. The Iyi clan is no exception and they’ve seen their fair share of falsehearted ronin who want nothing more than the money to go away, and so they relate one such story, that of Motome Chijiiwa (Akira Ishihama) to Hanshiro. The story of Motome sees the young warrior disgraced and forced to commit harakiri in the middle of the Iyi compound with a blade made of bamboo – since he’d sold off the steel blade of his sword. Yet Hanshiro’s resolve remains and so he’s granted the right to harakiri and the audience of the entire clan, including Kageyu Saito (Rentaro Mikuni), one of the clan’s counselors. Before he performs harakiri however, Hanshiro regales them of the twisted path of events that led him to this point and slowly unveils a hidden agenda none of them expected.
Written by Shinobu Hashimoto, the same man who wrote Rashomon, it’s no wonder that Harakiri plays with the same elements of just action according to perspective. The actions of the Iyi clan in relation to how they handle the seemingly cowardly Motome at first seems little more than a cautionary tale to other ronin, but as the film wears on and we learn a new side of the story, questions are raised. While from the Iyi clan’s perspective they called the bluff of a coward, could the tragedy as it was revealed have been averted if someone had taken the time to explore the case from a position other than a sense of solemn duty? At what point does one’s conviction to abstract values bow in favor of real-life circumstances and the dignity deserved by every person, regardless of economic or social standing? Can an organization be held responsible for following the rules to such an extreme degree that they never stop and take into consideration some element of humanity?
The crystal clear resolution of Blu-ray doesn’t always shine through in the transfer, simply because some moments of the film occur in such dark spaces that the HD makes no difference, but in some of the more complex shots, whether panning over a cemetery or a showdown between two warriors in a windswept field, it’s utterly breathtaking. It’s almost shocking, because it seems to come out of nowhere and poses such a huge contrast to a film that for the first three-quarters drew most of its strength from the performance of one man, on his knees, telling a story as he works ever closer to his own suicide rite.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
For such a brilliant classic, the Blu-ray may seem lacking in terms of its extras, and undoubtedly there will be some who find it disappointing; though what is here offers some consolation, but with pros and cons for each. In the case of the interview with Masaki Kobayashi as moderated by Masahiro Shinoda, it plays less like a conversation and more like Shinoda gushing his appreciation for Kobayashi’s work and leading every so thoroughly that all the director has to do is sort of chuckle and agree. Rarely are the responses ever as deep as fans of the director’s work would like, and maybe that’s a cultural aspect of how interviews in Japan work, but the result is less an interview with Kobayashi and more a historical profile offered by Shinoda with the director simply nodding in agreement.
By contrast, the interviews with the film’s star Tatsuya Nakadai and the screenwriter of Harakiri, Shinobu Hashimoto, may be short, but they’re much more revealing of each parties respective memories of the production. In these two instances, it’s Nakadai and Hashimoto recounting the filmmaking and conceptualization processes for the film, and anecdotes about how Nakadai felt too young to play the part and how the story of Harakiri took so long to evolve on paper.
The lesser of the extras is an introduction to the film by Japanese-film historian Donald Richie.
As with all Criterion Collection Blu-ray releases, Harakiri has a booklet that features an essay by Joan Mellen on Kobayashi’s place in and interpretation of history, as well as her interview with the director.
"Harakiri (The Criterion Collection)" is on sale October 4, 2011 and is not rated. Drama. Directed by Masaki Kobayashi. Written by Shinobu Hashimoto. Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita, Rentaro Mikuni.
