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Film · TMDB
8.4Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual. The senior counselor for the Iyi clan questions the ronin’s resolve and integrity, suspecting Hanshirō of seeking charity rather than an honorable end. What follows is a pair of interlocking stories which lay bare the difference between honor and respect, and promises to examine the legendary foundations of the Samurai code.
Cast
- Tatsuya Nakadai as Hanshiro Tsugumo
- Akira Ishihama as Motome Chijiiwa
- Shima Iwashita as Miho Tsugumo
- Tetsuro Tamba as Hikokuro Omodaka
- Masao Mishima as Tango Inaba
- Ichirō Nakatani as Hayato Yazaki
Themes
- suicide
- japan
- samurai
- asia
- flashback
- revenge
- poverty
- black and white
- seppuku
- ronin
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Ratings
IMDb
8.6/10
90,669 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
100%
Metacritic
85/100
- Year
- 1962
- Runtime
- 133 min
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery
- Rated
- Not Rated
- Awards
- 9 wins & 3 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Masaki Kobayashi
- Screenplay by
- Shinobu Hashimoto
- Based on
- "Ibunronin ki", by Yasuhiko Takiguchi [ ja ]
- Produced by
- Tatsuo Hosoya
- Starring
- Tatsuya Nakadai Rentarō Mikuni Akira Ishihama [ ja ] Shima Iwashita Tetsurō Tamba
- Cinematography
- Yoshio Miyajima
- Edited by
- Hisashi Sagara
- Music by
- Tōru Takemitsu
- Production company
- Shochiku
- Distributed by
- Shochiku
- Release date
- 16 September 1962 ( 1962-09-16 )
- Running time
- 133 minutes
- Country
- Japan
- Language
- Japanese
via Wikipedia infobox
~13 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Harakiri (切腹, Seppuku) is a 1962 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The story takes place between 1619 and 1630 during the Edo period and the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate. It tells the story of the rōnin Hanshirō Tsugumo, who requests to commit seppuku (harakiri) within the manor of a local feudal lord, using the opportunity to explain the events that drove him to ask for death before an audience of samurai. The film continues to receive critical acclaim, often considered one of the greatest films of all time.
Plot
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Harakiri” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.