302 Harakiri

[Lemmy Caution]

Well, I'd agree that Kobayashi wasn't making laugh-out-loud movies, but I still find a very dark and cynical element of humor amid all the doom and gloom of Harakiri. Perhaps it's better to call it a sort of absurdism, but I do find the ease with which Nakadai's character throws the plans (and pomposity) of the clan leaders into chaos amusing at times.

There is definite humor in the fact that all these supposed tough guys in the clan essentially call into work sick, too ashamed to be seen in public missing their topknot (and too weak to pay the penalty for such lost honor). Of course the humor is fairly black, as they are being called out to be an executioner by the condemned man. ("My humble apologies that I can not see to your death today, as I'm feeling <cough, cough> a little under the weather. I should be able to make it in another month or two.")

I can see how some might find the film a bit too rigid or moralistic, but I think those are really it's strengths. The relentlessness of the plot and the slow unfolding of the story is like a Greek tragedy.

[ltfontaine]

I think the movie actually gets better with repeat viewings. Knowing the plot in advance places the machinations of Nakadai's character in the foreground. This adds to what you call the film's "grim, inexorable rhythm" -- and, I would argue, gives the film an element of dark humor.

Very true, as the first time through, one is (or at least some are) preoccupied with resolution of the mounting suspense and anticipation of a cataclysm that one gradually realizes must be inevitable. This element is not in play on subsequent passes and one is free to relish Tsugumo’s bitter game of cat-and-mouse. Now that you mention it, I guess I have laughed when Tsugumo tosses out those topknots. There is also a certain satisfaction, on repeated viewing, in knowing that Kobayashi will not allow Tsugumo to escape the fate to which he is resigned, and that the film itself seals the shame of Iyi’s clan.

I've also found resonances with some of Okamoto's and Fukasaku's samurai films. In particular, the unreliability of officially recorded history, which Kobayashi acknowledged as one of the major themes of the film, crops up again in both Okamoto's Samurai Assassin and Fukasaku's Yagyu Clan Conspiracy (where the dark humor, or even outright absurdism, is even more pronounced).

Here is yet another element shared by Shinoda, who specifically cites, in his Samurai Spy interview for Criterion, scrutiny of political history as displacing swordplay in films like Assassination and Samurai Spy. (These latter two films are becoming strong favorites, especially the former in one of the most stunning black and white DVD transfers I’ve ever seen, from MoC.)

All give it some credit for having nice cinematography and pitch-perfect composition but nearly every other aspect represents sterile, soulless nothing.

Sterile, soulless? Sidehacker, I couldn’t disagree more.

[GTO]

DVD Empire has marked this as "Currently Unavailable." The Criterion store still has it, so it might be a good time to go ahead and buy.

[teddyleevin]

DVD Empire has marked this as "Currently Unavailable." The Criterion store still has it, so it might be a good time to go ahead and buy.

I doubt it's going OOP. It's when the item is unavailable from Criterion but available from select online retailers that we should worry.

[knives]

Just saw this, I know two in as many days, but I have to congratulate this film that I actually mistook for Ugestsu for being the best movie I've seen out of Japan. The best and most striking thing for me was the cinematography which is the best usage of black and white I've ever seen. The acting was also great. The lead here even challenges Mifune in showing every emotion in seconds. I hope they worked together. Also loved the humor. As the situation unfolds it almost becomes a Wilder film as far as absurdity is involved. Finally and this may be my favorite part is that the character isn't some superhero impervious to everything short of a machine gun at close range. When things hit the floor he gets beaten worse then McClane. The violence is played so real and as far as the title act absolutely disgusting. This is just one of the best films I've ever seen.

[HerrSchreck]

I hope they worked together..

Quite often.. or at least often enough-- you can begin with Kobayashi's 'sequel' to this, also on CC, called "Rebellion" or "Samurai Rebeliion." Mifune & Nakadai are both in it.

[knives]

That's perfect. Queuing it right now.

[PerfectDepth]

After Rebellion, be sure to check out both Yojimbo and Sanjuro for great Mifune/Nakadai action.

[HerrSchreck]

For their best set-against-each-other film-- and a chambara masterpiece in it's own right-- do NOT miss The Sword of Doom. If you liked the sensibility of Harakiri/Seppuku, SoD ought to make your hair stand on end. Truly badass.

[knives]

Even since I saw the cover art to SoD I've been wanting to get it, but I just haven't for one reason or another. I really should do, especially if it has to do with the myth I think it does.

[Grand Illusion]

Samurai Rebellion may be the most libertarian film I've ever seen. I love it.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Samurai Rebellion may be the most libertarian film I've ever seen. I love it.

Maybe National Review could make a new list for it.

[Nakadai_77]

The acting was also great. The lead here even challenges Mifune in showing every emotion in seconds. I hope they worked together.

Nakadai is probably my favorite Japanese actor of all time. Not as showy as Mifune, he was equally effective if not more. He has worked with a panel of the best Japanese directors of all time that include Kobayashi (12 times), Kurosawa (6 times), Naruse (5 times), Ichikawa (6 times), Keisuke Kinoshita, Kihachi Okamoto (10 times), Satsuo Yamamoto, Kei Kumai.

He is a chamelean, an actor's actor and also a star. He has at least 10 films that were released on DVD by Criterion. I am and will continue to be confused to as why he never achieved similar international fame as Mifune did in his prime time.

[Napier]

I am and will continue to be confused to as why he never achieved similar international fame as Mifune did in his prime time.

Although Nakadai is an exceptional actor who worked with the titans of Japanese cinema, I think the answer to your question could best be summed up in one word. Yojimbo

[Nakadai_77]

I am and will continue to be confused to as why he never achieved similar international fame as Mifune did in his prime time.

Although Nakadai is an exceptional actor who worked with the titans of Japanese cinema, I think the answer to your question could best be summed up in one word. Yojimbo

Counter that with "human condition" and "harakiri".

[knives]

Counter that with "human condition" and "harakiri".

Which never had the over seas success of Yojimbo, or Rashomon, or Seven Samurai, or really any of the Kurosawas.

[Napier]

Counter that with "human condition" and "harakiri".

Which never had the over seas success of Yojimbo, or Rashomon, or Seven Samurai, or really any of the Kurosawas.

And just imagine that no matter how much eye candy Kagemusha contains, one can't help but think how much better the final product could have been, if Shintaro Katsu had played the lead. Maybe Nakadai makes it too serious? I personally don't remember Harakiri having that certain comic element that particularly appeals to western audiences. As much as say....Yojimbo.

[mteller]

Are you all forgetting that Nakadai has a major role in Yojimbo?

[Napier]

Are you all forgetting that Nakadai has a major role in Yojimbo?

Not at all, but glad you mentioned it! He's definitely no Mifune though.

[knives]

Are you all forgetting that Nakadai has a major role in Yojimbo?

Not at all, but glad you mentioned it! He's definitely no Mifune though.

That I disagree with to an extant. Yes his acting style is completely different, but I don't think that means he's any less good, just different. As for him being in Yojimbo, it's not a flashy role, especially in the way he plays it. When compared with Mifune in the film, who gets more screentime and a lot more to do it that time and there's your more memorable character. Also western audiences were much more familiar to Mifune by then because of Seven Samurai and Rashomon.

[Nakadai_77]

Mifune is great and flashy. One case that I can make of him is that he is Mifune in every film, at least in most of the Kurosawa flick. Nakadai is more subtle, a chameleon, has such great range, and really knows how to use his facial expression. Take another look at his first close up in "sword of doom". That pretty much sums up the story for this extremely complicated character. Personally I feel that his performance lingers with me longer.

[HerrSchreck]

Mifune is great and flashy. One case that I can make of him is that he is Mifune in every film, at least in most of the Kurosawa flick. Nakadai is more subtle, a chameleon.

I'd definitely agree that Nakadai is the more "classical" of the two actors, in that his technique is far more controlled and therefore his range conjures up the essence of a fully-trained actor with a background on the stage... which is in fact the case.

But as for Mifune, his visceral over the top nature can be misleading-- compare his ripsnorting turn in Seven Samurai with the calmly magesterial turn in Redbeard. Or his strutting, Elvis-like gangster in Drunken Angel with his DeNiro-esque transformation in Record of a Living Being/I Live IN Fear. His calmly mannered businessmen in The Bad Sleep Well and High & Low are miles away from the boiling vat of testosterone raging across the celluloid in say Rashomon or SPider Web Castle/Throne of Blood. I love his turn as the artist in Scandal.

Audiences love fearless men who seem so unintimidated by the camera and their fellow cast & crew-- no matter how venerable-- that they seem to spit right in the eye of the lens. In that sense Mifune has had roles that utlize all that bottled up energy in a way Jimmy Cagney has. Pure screen dominance. But like Cagney, Mifune was capable of great restraint, and charm, and sophistication and even elegance, especially when his natural force was guided in profitable directions my masters like Kurosawa and Kobayashi. I think it a shame that he never worked with someone like Ozu, or even Naruse-- I could see his enormous emotional range being brought to heel and put to great use in a domestic drama by Ozu... life brings the visceral young man to heel, just a little too late, and we all turn to blubbering audience members along with Mifune at a funeral etc etc.....

[Sanjuro]

He did work with Naruse (for one third of a 3-part movie anyway). It's actually on TV this evening:
http://www.nihon-eiga.com/prog/000697_000.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not much info on IMDB apart from 'comedy'. Looks nice though.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042604/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Michael Kerpan]

Ishinaka (a novelist) Reports on Human (Romantic) Behavior is a delightful film -- and the last third (starring Mifune and Setsuko Wakayama) is the best of the three segments. Part of Yojiro Ishizaka's short story collection (all about Ishinaka's observatiions in his home territory in Aomori Prefecture) has been translated -- and this contains the stories used for parts one and three of the film. (I _think_ the plot of part 2 might be clear enough, even unsubbed -- and you get to enjoy the work of young Yoko Sugi and Ryo Ikebe)..

Mifune is wonderful in this film -- as a shy country boy who is essentially tongue-tied in the presence of pretty girls (at best, he can stutter a couple of syllables).

[HerrSchreck]

Sounds like it's worth tracking down. I was given a head's up by Morgan Creek that Mifune also worked with Naruse in Tsuma no kokoro aka A Wife's Heart (1956), w Mifune playing a bank-clerk confidante/bachelor to Naruse regular Hideko Takamine. Here's Mifune in the film:

.

So narrow my wish down to sadness that Ozu never siphoned Mifune's great power into one of his own works.