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Harakiri



Of all Masaki Kobayashi’s attacks on the cruelty and inhumanity perpetrated by authoritarian power (including The Human Condition and Samurai Rebellion), perhaps none are more brilliant than his visceral, mesmerising Harakiri [aka Seppuku].

In a magnificent performance, Tatsuya Nakadai (Yojimbo, The Face of Another, Ran) stars as Hanshiro Tsugumo, a masterless down-and-out samurai who enters the manor of Lord Iyi, requesting to commit ritual suicide on his property. Suspected of simply fishing for charity, Hanshiro is told the gruesome tale of the last samurai who made the same request – but Hanshiro will not be moved…

With its intricate structure and pressure-cooker atmosphere, Kobayashi’s first jidai-geki period drama is a full-scale demolition job of samurai ideals and feudal hypocrisy, filmed with artistry and surgical precision, and scored by celebrated composer Toru Takemitsu. Adapted from the same source novel in 2011 by notorious auteur Takashi Miike, the original – winner of the 1963 Special Jury Prize at Cannes – still stands as a startling moment in Japanese cinema. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present, for its 50th anniversary, the UK home viewing première of Harakiri in a Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD edition.

DUAL FORMAT RELEASE INCLUDING BLU-RAY AND DVD VERSIONS OF THE FILM

• New, officially licensed, Shochiku high-definition transfer (1080p on Blu-ray)
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• Original theatrical trailer
• Excerpt from a 1993 Directors Guild of Japan interview with Masaki Kobayashi discussing the film with director Masahiro Shinoda
• An illustrated 28-page booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Philip Kemp, a 1963 interview with Kobayashi, and rare archival production stills

I guess this will be pretty much the same source as the recent Japanese BD, sadly without bonus material. The Criterion had less than an hour of extras, which was very bare for a 2-disc set, and I hope MoC can get some good extras like a commentary for their disc.

If this is coming out in September, it would be a nice tie-in in Japan with the Takashi Miike remake of the film.

Does anyone know why the title was translated from one semi-familiar Japanese import term to another? That seems like a strange thing to do.

Actually all three titles are on there, but Seppuku is the more accurate one hence it being bracketed.

The title is bizarre that they changed the Japanese title into another Japanese word (But I know a lot in reverse in Japan, where Hollywood English movie titles are changed to another English title, as opposed to Japanese).

Technically, "Seppuku" 切腹 is the original Japanese title, and "Harakiri" 腹切 is the "foreign" title(yes, just reverse the characters and that's what you get) Most likely chosen as "Harakiri" is/was more well known to foreign audiences.

In meaning, they are both the same action, just "Seppuku" being a more formal way to say it.
Kinda like Seppuku means "Die honorably by slicing the stomach", while Harakiri is more like "Guts spill out" (Not a literal translation obviously, just how the nuance would be)

manicsounds wrote: In meaning, they are both the same action, just "Seppuku" being a more formal way to say it.
Kinda like Seppuku means "Die honorably by slicing the stomach", while Harakiri is more like "Guts spill out" (Not a literal translation obviously, just how the nuance would be)

I have no idea about the Japanese language, obviously, but that's more or less precisely what I heard about the difference between the two terms, with "Seppuku" stressing the 'honour' of the act. I guess that someone like Mishima would have abhorred it if you had referred to his final deed as "harakiri". And of course it's this idea of 'honour' that is questioned by Kobayashi in this film, so it probably should have been stressed by the title of the film. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember that the word spoken in the film is also "Seppuku" when it comes up. So MoC probably should have called the film "Seppuku", with "Harakiri" in small letters and in brackets, regardless of what the US distribution title once was. After all, they used the original titles for the Mizoguchi films.

Still, it's nowhere near as bad as the notorious subtitles on that Asian edition of Kurosawa's Sanshiro Sugata that translated 'judo' as 'kung fu'...

Special features from Amazon and Play.com.

- Includes both DVD and Blu-ray
- New, officially licensed, Shochiku high-definition transfer (1080p on Blu-ray)
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Original theatrical trailer
- Excerpt from a 1993 Directors Guild of Japan interview with Masaki Kobayashi discussing the film with director Masahiro Shinoda
- An illustrated 28-page booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Philip Kemp, a 1963 interview with Kobayashi, and rare archival production stills

Looks to be the same interview included on the Criterion DVD. There is also another excerpt of the interview on Samurai Rebellion. Wonder when and where we can see the entire interview?

BD.com

both reviews say there is a significant upgrade in the picture, and much wider in ratio than the Criterion.

When will this title be shipping direct from MoC?

Calvin wrote:When will this title be shipping direct from MoC?

On Wednesday IIRC.

I had the absolute pleasure to watch the film for the first time this afternoon: not surprised that Kobayashi's mentor Kinoshita hated the script and refused to see the film upon its release (years later, he saw it on TV and retracted his original remarks) as Harakiri is the kind of take-no-prisoners filmmaking that is in complete contrast to Kinoshita's work. The infamous bamboo sword sequence has lost none of its shock value nearly 50 years on but the entire film is absolutely enthralling from start to finish. Kudos to MoC for bringing this to Britain and for leaving Shochiku's resto well alone. Agree whole-heartedly with Michael B's comment in the Crit thread that this is reference material and needed no further tinkering with.

My Sight & Sound review - originally commissioned and delivered as a capsule, but it encouraged my editor to watch the film that evening, whereupon he promptly bumped the piece up to one of the leads and asked me to quadruple the length.