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Harakiri [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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Magnificent splendor of infinite sadness
Review date: 2008-04-26 Rating: 10 out of 10

This could be an alternative title for this masterpiece. Few films ever made me such an effect as "Harakiri" and made me so much think about human life and how fragile it is as well as about happiness and how precious - and always too short - are the moments we enjoy it.
I will not reveal anything about the story, but I think it is worthy to describe the first 30 seconds, which immediately nailed me to the seat by making me realise that I was watching a unique master piece.
So here they are: it begins with an old book in Japanese being opened somewhere in the middle and a calm voice reading: "This day of year 1630, in the morning, men came from the village to present gifts of fish to the castle. No other official business occurred. However, later that day, a well spoken and polite although clearly malnurished and poorly clothed ronin presented himself at the gate with a most unusual request..."

What follows is the story of a tragedy so heartbreaking that even Victor Hugo in "Les Miserables" didn't manage to equal it. It is also the story of an unjustice so disgusting that it would probably make Dickens and Zola weep like teenage girlies... And finally it is the story of a vengeance so mean and terrible that it makes "Death Wish" series look as a Disney movie in comparison - and even more remarkable is the fact that this revenge doesn't include ANY deaths and, still better, not even one drop of blood is spilled... Curious, isn't it? Well, the only way to find the solution of this riddle, is to watch the movie...
What was written above doesn't mean that this film is easy to watch - the title is not metaphoric, so be prepared to at least one scene that is purely horrible! Some swordfighting is also involved, but if this is what you are looking for in samurai movies, don't bother even beginning watching this one - the sword fighting is so much NOT the point here!
Masaki Kobayashi is one of the major Japanese movie makers and "Harakiri" is his masterpiece. It easily matches every Kurosawa movie, and - I hardly can believe that I am writing it - it can be even better than "Seven Samurai"! Both movies are of course very different, but if I had to choose only one to preserve for posterity from certain destruction, I would face a really tough choice. And all my life I considered "Seven Samurai" as THE perfect movie - until I finally saw this one...
All actors are doing great in "Harakiri" but it is of course Tatsuya Nakadai who has the greatest responsability and plays the hardest part as (yes, you guessed right) this mysterious "well spoken and polite although malnurished and poorly clothed ronin"... This kind of acting is clearly inspired somewhere very high (or somewhere very low) but clearly it is not permitted to regular earthlings to reach such level of perfection... At every minute of the movie Tatsuya Nakadai could spoil it by any kind of little mistake - but he never made one...
I really do not see what else could I tell, so just one little warning. This is not a movie for a friday evening with your girlfriend. First, she will probably run away after first 30 minutes to cry in her room (if she doesn't, dump her - she is probably not a woman or even a human being at all and probably devours males after mating...). And if by any miracle you manage to watch this movie together until the end, you can certainly expect that she will need lot of cuddling later, but that will be it. I can not imagine any romance developping in the 24-48 hours following the watching of this movie... "Harakiri" will give you a great satisfaction (pun very much intentional), but not one of Friday evening variety...

This is an important and unique movie. At least once in a lifetime everybody should watch it.

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Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Akira Ishihama
Shima Iwashita
Tatsuya Nakadai
Tetsuro Tamba
Rentaro Mikuni

Creators:
Tatsuya Nakadai (Primary Contributor)
Rentaro Mikuni (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
EAN: 9780780030060
Binding: DVD
ISBN: 0780030060
Number of items: 2
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC,
Release date: 2005-08-23
Universal product code (UPC): 037429207321
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 133 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1964-08-04
Language: Japanese (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)

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