Seppuku (1962)

When a ronin requesting seppuku at a feudal lord's palace is told of the brutal suicide of another ronin who previously visited, he reveals how their pasts are intertwined - and in doing so challenges the clan's integrity.

Director:

Masaki Kobayashi

Writers:

Yasuhiko Takiguchi (novel), Shinobu Hashimoto (screenplay)

Stars:

Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita

Top Rated Movies #33 | 8 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

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
Tôru Takeuchi	...	Retainer
Yoshirô Aoki	...	Umenosuke Kawabe
Tatsuo Matsumura	...	Seibei
Akiji Kobayashi	...	Ii Clan Retainer
Kôichi Hayashi
Ryûtarô Gomi	...	General

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

samurai | one against many | year 1630 | katana | ronin | 

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Taglines:

Award Winner Cannes Festival 1963

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Genres:

Action | Drama | History

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

Stage-trained actor Tatsuya Nakadai and older film actor Rentarô Mikuni could not agree on an acceptable speaking voice while sharing the film stage. Nakadai spoke loudly and Mikuni spoke softly each citing their related acting experiences for their choice. They strongly disagreed with each other. The director, Masaki Kobayashi, halted filming and stated that he would not resume until both the actors came to an agreement. They did; stopping the shooting for three days.

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Goofs

After Motome's seppuku, when Omodaka steps forward and chops Motome's head off (supposedly), he visibly stops his swing before striking Motome's neck (naturally, since real swords were used).

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Quotes

Hanshiro Tsugumo: The suspicious mind conjures its own demons.

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Connections

Version of Ichimei (2011)

User Reviews

Samurai Genre is Used to Exposively Indict Japanese Politics and Culture

I saw Harakiri (Seppuku) in a new 35 mm print at NYC's Film Forum. This is a brilliant use of a narrow period genre to explosively indict politics and culture. Writers Shinobu Hashimoto and Yasuhiko Takiguchi surely must have been as inspired by "The Count of Monte Cristo," Ambrose Bierce and Howard Hawks' Westerns as much as by samurai literature and movies.

The film begins deceptively as a story within a story, seemingly providing a traditional example of upholding samurai honor, such as in the conventional, oft-retold tale of "The 47 Ronin." The context is set at a time when the central government, the shogunate, is supplanting local clans and arbitrarily unemploying thousands of people, notably their samurai, forcing them into the mercenary mode of ronin at best and begging for food at worse. But the parallels to the 20th century are made repeatedly explicit as the samurai who comes to this clan seeking help is from Hiroshima.

Very gradually we get further insight on the tale within a tale, as we see more flashbacks within flashbacks into what each character has been doing before these confrontations and we get uneasy inklings that the moral of the story may not be what it appears at first and the stakes get higher and higher with almost unbearable tension.

It is almost halfway through the film until we see a female and we suddenly see an alternative model of masculinity, where a priority is put on family, support, education and creative productivity. In comparison to the macho opening relationships, with their emphasis on formal militaristic loyalty to a hierarchy, a loving husband and father is practically a metrosexual. Seeing the same stalwart samurai making casual goo goo sounds to his grandbaby puts the earlier, ritualized scenes in sharp relief, particularly the recurring image of the clan's armor which seems less and less imposing and is finally destroyed as an empty symbol.

The psychological tension in the confrontations in the last third of the film is more excruciating than the actual violence. Even when we thought we already knew the outcome from the flashbacks, the layers of perception of relationships and personalities are agonizingly peeled away with each thrust of a sword to reveal the depths of the horrifying hypocrisy of the political and social structure. And those are just the overwhelming cultural resonances that a 21st century American can glean. Like "Downfall (Der Untergang)," it reveals the inhumane mentality that led to World War II.

The repeating motif of long walks then confrontations down empty corridors emphasizes the stultifying bureaucratic maze that entraps the characters. The revenge motifs are accented by startlingly beautiful cinematography that recalls traditional Japanese art, including drops of blood like first snow flakes then a waterfall.

The over all effect of this masterpiece is emotionally draining.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

1963 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Seppuku

Filming Locations:

Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$15,222

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shochiku

Technical Specs

Runtime:

133 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1