Harakiri
"What befalls others today, may be your own fate tomorrow"
"Swordsmanship untested in battle is like the art of swimming mastered on land"
"After all, this thing we call samurai honor, is ultimately nothing but a facade"
"The ronin from Hiroshima, Hanshiro Tsugumo, committed harakiri. All our own men died of illness. The house of Iyi has no retainers who could be felled or wounded by some half-starved ronin"
I absolutely loved this. Masaki Kobayashi is a director that I've had listed for a while so I wanted to watch one of his films. Not only is Harakiri his highest rated film, but it's ranked at number one on Letterboxd's top 250 narrative features. Therefore, it was an absolute no brainer to get this watched. Somehow, this has actually delivered and probably exceeded the ludicrously high ratings it has on Letterboxd. It might be the best feeling in the world when a film that is rated so highly, actually delivers to that rating when you watch it. Definitely up there with the greatest films of all time.
First, I just love the themes this film explores. The whole film is exposing the inconsistencies and hypocrisy that comes with samurai honor. For a start, it exposes that the whole concept of having traditions, rituals, a code of conduct, etc, is just a way of powerful people maintaining power. It isn't based on any true moral compass. For example, Motome has an ill wife and an ill child and therefore has to use the samurai's to get help in some way. It's literally his only and final option to save the lives of his loved ones. But despite his tough situation, and acting out of love, the samurai's have no compassion for his situation and force him into committing harakiri anyway. It shows that the honor they claim to have, has no true humanity or emotion to it. It's purely a way of keeping up appearances and controlling those 'below' them. When Motome does commit Harakiri, they also force him to use the bamboo swords - they claim that a samurai must use their own sword to be truly honorable. In actuality, that isn't true or logical in any sense. It's purely barbaric and actually, completely stupid. I could go on forever about the multitude of ways that Tsugumo exposes the facade of samurai honor, but as a final point, the way the supposed 'best warriors of the clan' all pretend to be ill once Tsugumo has cut their hair off, perfectly wraps up the whole argument that Tsugumo is making. Their claim to be honorable and skillful warriors is a complete and utter falsehood. It's nothing more than an appearance. And a piece of symbolism that perfectly drives home that message, is how the film begins and ends. It begins with a set of Samurai armor, however, the way in which you perceive that armor as a viewer, has completely changed by the end of the film. At the beginning, you see it as a position of honor, power, wealth, respect, and a feeling of the position being invulnerable. You also imagine someone inside the armor. However, by the end, especially with how Tsugumo picks up the hollow set of armor, all you see is the fabrication of values that Tsugumo has exposed and a complete facade. The armor being empty and meaningless, is actually symbolic about the whole message of the film. It's just masterful symbolism and messaging.
Secondly, oh my word the story-telling in this film is on another level - it actually might be the best piece of story-telling I have ever seen. There is no exaggeration in that statement. The dialogue is absolutely incredible for a start. I don't know if the translation to English subtitles is completely word for word because obviously English and Japanese have different alphabets. But regardless, the dialogue had me hooked from beginning to end. The use of flashbacks is probably the best I've ever seen. Genuinely flawless. The first story of Motome, before we have all the context for who he is and why he has chosen to commit Harakiri, is so captivating. Then the multitude of stories we get from Tsugumo are all incredible. Each flashback, adding more context to the story as it goes on, is given to the viewer at the exact moment it's needed.
And even underneath all of that intricate storytelling, it has a few incredibly violent moments that had me cringing with disgust. Plus, those exhilarating actions sequences at the end. It's genuinely a blend of about 5 genres and it delivers in every single one of them.
In summary, utterly astonishing. Not my favourite film of all time, but it comfortably sits with the 5/5s. This is only first watch as well. I can only imagine this improving on rewatch. Couldn't recommend this film more.