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Title: Hara-Kiri (1962)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Tatsuya Nakadai | ... | Hanshiro Tsugumo | |
 |
Akira Ishihama | ... | Motome Chijiiwa |
| Shima Iwashita | ... | Miho Tsugumo | |
| Tetsurô Tanba | ... | Hikokuro Omodaka | |
| Masao Mishima | ... | Tango Inaba | |
| Ichirô Nakatani | ... | Hayato Yazaki | |
| Kei Satô | ... | Masakazu | |
|
|
Yoshio Inaba | ... | Jinai Chijiiwa |
| Hisashi Igawa | ... | Retainer | |
|
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Tôru Takeuchi | ... | Retainer |
|
|
Yoshirô Aoki | ... | Umenosuke Kawabe |
| Tatsuo Matsumura | ... | Seibei | |
| Akiji Kobayashi | ... | Ii Clan Retainer | |
|
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Kôichi Hayashi | ||
| Ryûtarô Gomi | ... | General | |
Peace in 17th-century Japan causes the Shogunate's breakup of warrior clans, throwing thousands of samurai out of work and into poverty. An honorable end to such fate under the samurai code is ritual suicide, or hara-kiri (self-inflicted disembowelment). An elder warrior, Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) seeks admittance to the house of a feudal lord to commit the act. There, he learns of the fate of his son-in-law, a young samurai who sought work at the house but was instead barbarically forced to commit traditional hara-kiri in an excruciating manner with a dull bamboo blade. In flashbacks the samurai tells the tragic story of his son-in-law, and how he was forced to sell his real sword to support his sick wife and child. Tsugumo thus sets in motion a tense showdown of revenge against the house. Written by Kevin Rayburn <kprayb01@homer.louisville.edu>
Seven Samurai is pretty great, but I think Harakiri is even better. This tale of a ronin seeking revenge and exposing the flawed samurai code is so close to perfection. The story is engrossing and despite the slow pacing it's never boring. What the production lacks in scale it makes up for with emotional intensity. The sparse, ominous score is perfect for this film. The direction and cinematography are masterful and the camera's slow pans and zooms really butter my croissant. The editing is great and purposeful too. There's not a single weak performance but Tatsuya Nakadai in the leading role steals the show.
My only complaints are with some of the pacing and fight choreography. There's a standoff scene in the middle that could have been cut (since it felt like a cheap way to build tension and it wouldn't make sense for them to continue waiting afterward) and the long flashback could have also been trimmed. The film is 2 hours 13 minutes but I think exactly 2 hours would have been perfect. From a fight choreography standpoint the one-on-one fight scenes were well done but climax was shaky. There were many interesting ideas and moments in there, but also several points where I was like "okay, how did they not strike him there?"
Harakiri is an outstanding film that deserves more attention. If you haven't seen this film check it out. The Criterion restoration is absolutely beautiful. I intentionally kept this review vague since it's best to go into it knowing as little as possible. With a few thousand more ratings, this film would be pretty high up on the IMDb Top 250, and I'd be delighted to see it there.