HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI

Japan, 2011, 126 minutes, Colour.
Kôji Yakusho, Munetaka Aoki, Naoto Takenaka .
Directed by Takashi Miike

Hara- Kiri: Death of a Samurai has a strong reputation, especially with the career of the director, Takashi Miike and his films like 13 Assassins or the quite eccentric Sukiyaki Western Django (with Quentin Tarantino) and his quite different treatment of a Samurai story. The film is a remake of the 1962 classic Hara-Kiri/ Seppuku by Masaki Kobayashi, winner of the Jury Prize, Cannes, 1963. The present film was the first Competition film screened in 3D at Cannes, 2012.

This is rather a stately film, a film about the Samurai traditions and their meaning rather than a display of Samurai battles and sword contests. There is something towards the end but, even then, as the hero fights with a bamboo sword, it is something of a parody and a critique.

In fact, the action takes place in the 19th century, 1617-1634, a long period of peace where warriors have little or no place in society, where they have become impoverished with no possibilities of employment.

The film opens with a Samurai coming to the local lord to gain permission to kill himself in the official’s courtyard. With the focus during the opening credits on past Samurai glory and icons, it is clear that there is a questions about hara-kiri, considered a most worthy suicide, and its place in the honour and glory tradition of Japan. (And its continuing history even to the kamikaze pilots of World War II.)

The official decides to tell the warrior the story of a young Samurai who had previously asked for the same privilege. This occasions a flashback to the young man, his story, his plea for some money for his wife and child and the issue of whether a Samurai can bluff authorities for gain or not – and whether he deserves to die.

The older Samurai listens to the story and takes us on a more detailed flashback of the young man’s story, his status, his marriage, his sick wife and baby and his desperate plea to the official.

It is here that the Samurai takes his stand, challenging authority and tradition – and some scenes of martial swordsmanship.
This means that the film is more a portrait of characters, interactions, emotions as well as the challenge to authority and tradition.

The film looks beautiful, stately, as noted before. It is a film of shots that last longer than might be expected, asking the audience to reflect on what they see and on what they think.

(It was post-produced in 3D – not very necessary – which means that when it is projected it may be too dark because of the process and the glasses and it is better to watch it in its 2D print, or remove the glasses while watching.)

1. The director and his work? Samurai films? Martial arts? Action? The Japanese film tradition of Samurai films? The Samurai in war and peace?

2. A remake of the 1962 classic? The different interpretations in their times? This film and a 21st century interpretation?

3. The beauty of the seasons, the court, the interiors of the house? The contrast with the poverty of the village, the poor homes? Shops? Streets? The 17th century? The musical score?

4. The title, audience knowledge of Hara-Kiri? Of the Samurai traditions? Motivations? Manner? Hara-kiri as ‘a most worthy suicide’?

5. The Japanese and the traditions of death, a culture of death, suicide? In later centuries? And 20th century manifestations?

6. The presentation of the reality of Hara-Kiri? Audience presuppositions? The audience critique? The film’s critique?

7. The structure: the introduction to the court and the officials? Hanshiro’s petition? The lord telling the story, the flashbacks of Motome’s petition? The visualising of his sad story? The confrontation by Hanshiro? The flashback and the story of his family, the disgrace of the seconds? The glimpse of the cutting of the top-knots? The final fight, Hanshiro’s death? A glimpse of happiness? The crashing of the icon? The final glimpse of the icon?

8. The court, the lord, his limp, surrounded by warriors, the petition in his office, his consideration? The traditions of Hara-Kiri? The Samurai in peacetime with no work, their poverty? The issue of Hara- Kiri bluffs? The lord and the hearing?

9. Motome’s story: his plea, earnestness, age, the request for money, the refusal? His sword, the order to kill himself, the bluntness of the bamboo sword, his second in waiting? The issue of the bluff? The second and the beheading? The later bringing of the corpse to the home?

10. Hanshiro’s story? The period of peace, no warriors? The rebuilding in the city? The oppression, the orders for rebuilding, the reasons? Motome and the manuscripts? And his father? Miho and her father? The community, the old man and his death, the bequeathing his son to Hanshiro?

11. Hanshiro, the children, growing up, the marriage, pregnancy, Miho’s illness, the concern, selling the tiles, the little money, the offer to buy the sword, Motome and his reaction, but his selling the sword? Buying the eggs, the children chasing each other, the eggs falling, his eating the egg from the ground, the egg for Miho and the child? Illness, desperation, the father’s arrival, his advice, the grief for his daughter? Payment for the doctor, the medicine, Hanshiro trying to save the child, the death, the grief? Motome absent?

12. Hanshiro, going to the lord, his plea, the reactions, demanding the particular seconds, the topknots? The visualizing of his humiliating them? The decision? The lord ordering the execution? The fight, bamboo sword, his great expertise, the lord and his return?

13. Hanshiro’s death, his vision of a happy family, an alternate world? The swordsmen, the smashing of the icon?

14. The film as a Samurai story, as looking at traditions, as Japanese, the twenty first century world view, admiration and critique?