Harakiri (1962 film)

Harakiri
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Produced by Tatsuo Hosoya
Written by Shinobu Hashimoto
Yasuhiko Takiguchi
Starring Tatsuya Nakadai
Rentaro Mikuni
Shima Iwashita
Akira Ishihama
Music by Tōru Takemitsu
Distributed by Shochiku
Release date(s) September 16, 1962 (Japan)
Running time 135 min.
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Harakiri (Japanese: 切腹, Seppuku) (1962) is a Japanese film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The story takes place between 1619 and 1630 during the Edo period and the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate. It tells of a ronin, Hanshiro Tsugumo, who instead of committing seppuku (harakiri) after his lord was deposed, was ordered to stay alive to care for his daughter and grandson as well as his son-in-law, the son of another samurai who had committed ritual suicide.

Plot

On May 16, 1630, Hanshiro Tsugumo arrives at the estate of the Iyi clan, looking for a suitable place to commit seppuku. At the time, it is told, it was fairly common for disgraced samurai to make the same request, or threat, in the hope of receiving alms from the lord of the house. To deter him therefrom, Kageyu Saito, counselor of the clan, tells Hanshiro a warning story wherein another ronin, Motome Chijiiwa – formerly of the same clan as Hanshiro – had made the same request and the samurai retainers of the house forced him to complete the ceremony and kill himself. When Motome's sword was revealed to be a fake made of bamboo, they insisted that he disembowel himself with it, so that Motome's death was agonizingly painful. Despite this warning, Tsugumo maintains his request to commit seppuku.

While preparing for the suicide, Hanshiro Tsugumo recounts to Saito and the retainers that his lord's house was considered a threat and toppled by the shogunate, whereupon his friend, another samurai, committed seppuku and left Tsugumo to look after his son, Motome Chijiiwa. Required to protect Chijiiwa and support his own daughter Miho, Hanshiro was unable to kill himself, and instead lived in poverty and worked menial jobs to support his family. In later years Chijiwa and Miho were married and had a son, Kingo; but continued to live in poverty. When Miho and Kingo became ill and could not afford to pay a physician, Chijiiwa threatened seppuku at a lord's house. Soon after his seppuku, Miho and Kingo died from their illnesses.

Hanshiro then reveals that before coming to the Iyi house, he tracked down two retainers of the house, Hayato Yazaki and Umenosuke Kawabe, whom he defeated easily and disgraced them by cutting off their topknots. A third retainer, Hikokuro Omodaka, comes to Hanshiro's home and challenges him to a ritual duel. Hanshiro and Hikokuro climatically duel in a brief but tense sword fight, where Hanshiro breaks Hikokuro's sword. Instead of honorably surrendering, Hikokuro continues to fight and his topknot is taken as well.

When Hanshiro finishes his account, Saito angrily orders the retainers to kill him; whereupon Tsugomo kills four and wounds eight while slowly succumbing to his wounds. When a new group of retainers arrive armed with guns, Tsugumo attempts seppuku, but is shot nevertheless. Kawabe and Yazaki are ordered to commit seppuku, while Omodaka is reported to have done so already; their deaths, and the four inflicted by Hanshiro, are reported as from "illness", lest word be transmitted that the Iyi House has lost face to a ronin.

Themes

The film presents a negative view of the emerging feudal system at the beginning of the 17th century, depicting the hypocrisy in the flimsy pretext of honor exhibited by the daimyo. At the time, harakiri was seen as a means to retain one's honor after a disgrace. The vanity of the feudal lord's counsellor Kageyu Saito is also shown: the outward appearance of honour is shown to be more important to him than real honour. He orders the retainers disgraced by Hanshiro Tsugumo to commit seppuku, and makes sure that those who were slain or had their topknots cut off by Hanshiro are written off as casualties to illness so that his house would not appear weak. An ironic commentary appears when Tsugumo is able to fight off a great many retainers with a sword, yet is helpless against three guns; a foreshadow of the Meiji restoration, wherein sword-bearing samurai were defeated by the "new" Japanese military.

Reception

On February 23, 2012 Roger Ebert added 'Harakiri' to his list of 'Great Movies'. He writes "Samurai films, like westerns, need not be familiar genre stories. They can expand to contain stories of ethical challenges and human tragedy. Harakiri, one of the best of them, is about an older wandering samurai who takes his time to create an unanswerable dilemma for the elder of a powerful clan. By playing strictly within the rules of Bushido Code which governs the conduct of all samurai, he lures the powerful leader into a situation where sheer naked logic leaves him humiliated before his retainers."[1]

Awards

The film was entered in the competition category at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. It lost the Palme d'Or to The Leopard, but received the Special Jury Award.[2]

Remakes

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

Main cast

References

  1. ^ Ebert, Roger (February 23, 2012). "Honor, morality, and ritual suicide". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120223/REVIEWS08/120229987/1004. Retrieved March 2, 2012. 
  2. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Harakiri". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3126/year/1963.html. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 

External links

Awards
Preceded by
The Trial of Joan of Arc
tied with L'eclisse 		Special Jury Prize, Cannes
1963
tied with The Cassandra Cat 		Succeeded by
Woman in the Dunes
Films directed by Masaki Kobayashi