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Harakiri (1962) More at IMDbPro »Seppuku (original title)

3 items from 2013

18 January 2013 12:46 PM, PST | We Got This Covered | See recent We Got This Covered news »

Apparently there’s no accounting for taste; The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is leading the pack in Blu-Ray pre-sales this week, closely followed by Taken 2 and Skyfall. After a lengthy run, The Dark Knight Rises has fallen to number 12 on the bestselling Blu-Ray sales charts and it will be sorely missed (thankfully I already own the film and you should too).

This week, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña star as two boys in blue in End of Watch, a classic samurai film gets a reboot, and a little-known Sherlock Holmes film finally arrives on Blu-Ray.

Ready for this week’s picks? Then read on.

End of Watch

Release Date: January 22nd, 2013

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, Anna Kendrick, America Ferrera, Frank Grillo, and Natalie Martinez.

Director: David Ayer

An American thriller drama film written and directed by David Ayer ( who also wrote Training Day and The Fast and the Furious »

- C.P. Howells

15 January 2013 7:42 AM, PST | Disc Dish | See recent Disc Dish news »

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Jan. 22, 2013

Price: DVD $26.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Tribeca Film/Cinedigm/New Video

Swords are swinging in Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai.

From prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike (he’s completed seven features in the last three years, including 2010’s 13 Assassins) comes the 2011 martial arts action-drama film Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, a remake of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 classic samurai film, Harakiri.

Hara-Kiri tells the story of Hanshirô (Ebizô Ichikawa), a samurai who arrives at the doorstep of his feudal lord and requests an honorable death by ritual suicide in his courtyard. The lord threatens him with the brutal tale of Motome (Eita), a desperate young ronin (a samurai with no lord or master) who made a similar request with ulterior motives, only to meet a grisly end. Undaunted, Hanshirô begins to tell his own story…

Miike’s movie arrives following its release on video-on-demand and digital platforms in July, »

- Laurence

4 January 2013 2:52 PM, PST | AsianMoviePulse | See recent AsianMoviePulse news »

To Remake Or Not To Remake, That Is The Question

“Ichimei” or “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai” is Takashi Miike‘s 2012 remake of the extraordinary 1962 classic “Seppuku” ( or “Harakiri“ ), that one directed by Masaki Kobayashi. If you feel like this might be a little too ambitious of a project for someone like Miike, fear not. His last project was “13 Assassins” ( which was reviewed right here on Amp ), a similar type of film with parallel themes and a striking resemblance in terms of visuals.

The story goes as follows: A ronin requests an audience with the regent of a powerful samurai clan. Once he is permitted to enter the grounds, the wandering warrior makes a startling demand: he requests the use of the clan’s courtyard in order to perform hara-kiri ( suicide by disembowelment ). Now, this is where the story gets even stranger…

As the conversation continues, the regent reveals an »

- The0racle

3 items from 2013