Poster from TMDB
OverviewAI-generated
Harakiri, also known by its Japanese title 切腹, is a 1962 Japanese film directed by Masaki Kobayashi from a screenplay by Shinobu Hashimoto. Shot in black-and-white and set in Edo, it stars Tatsuya Nakadai, Kei Satō, Rentarō Mikuni and Shima Iwashita, and centres on seppuku, samurai, revenge and suicide. Tōru Takemitsu composed the score. Classified as an action, drama and historical film, it runs 135 minutes and earned a box office of 15,000.
Produced and distributed by Shochiku, the film is also distributed by Netflix and is available through the Criterion Channel.
Synthesized by Vinony from 41 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
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
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Genre
- samurai cinema
- Country of origin
- Japan
- Original language
- Japanese
- Main subject
- Suicide
- Director
- Masaki Kobayashi
- Screenwriter
- Shinobu Hashimoto
- Composer
- Tōru Takemitsu
- Production company
- Shochiku
- Narrative location
- Edo
- Duration
- 135
- FilmAffinity ID
- 209631
- Distribution format
- video on demand
- Image
- Kinema-Junpo-1963-February-Special-2.jpg
Show 9 more facts
- publication date
- 1964-08-04
- title
- Harakiri
- distributed by
- Netflix
- color
- black-and-white
- different from
- Harakiri
- assessment
- Bechdel test
- review score
- 4.7/5
- box office
- 15000
- Commons category
- Harakiri
Sources (13)
via Wikidata · CC0
~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.