Death of a Ronin

Harakiri (1962)

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi this film stars Tatsuya Nakadai, Rentaro Mikuni, Shima Iwashita and Akira Ishihama. In 1630s Japan a down on his luck Ronin arrives at the gates of a large Samurai clan asking for a place to perform ritual suicide.

As a film about suicide the plot of this film works both as a critique of the hypocrisy in the Samurai code but also as to how we still struggle to deal with both those who are seeking to make a “cry for help” and actually trying to kill themselves. While the film is fairly slow moving it builds nicely to an action packed to conclusion and creates an intricate puzzle for the antagonist to deal with. It is well worth waiting for the eventual confrontation as the final fight scenes are excellently shot and performed.

5/5