Harakiri

Aroview: Japanese jidaigeki (period drama) set at the beginning of the Edo period, following a masterless samurai (ronin) who wishes to commit suicide (seppuku), a ritual that was common or even expected from warriors without lords.

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi (THE HUMAN CONDITION, KWAIDAN) who describes the inhumanity and hypocrisies around the ritual, as befitting of his self-described primary commitment as a filmmaker: to explore and question authority from a pacifist and socialist position. A mesmerising and poised film with occasional devastating brutality.

This film was remade as HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI in 2011 by Takashi Miike.

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