Harakiri

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Harakiri ★★★½ Seppuku 1962

An old samurai (Nakadai) wishes to commit ritual suicide on the grounds of a feudal lord, where he learns that his son-in-law, also a samurai, was forced to commit seppuku with a bamboo blade while seeking work. He tells the younger warrior's story to the assembled warlords, who abandoned the samurai when they were no longer needed. Beautifully told and shot film is a scathing indictment of the treatment of men of honor after the battles that defined them have been fought. A classic of the genre, focusing on the aftermath rather than the glory. 135m/B VHS, DVD . JP Hisashi Igawa, Yoshio Inaba, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita, Rentaro Mikuni, Masao Mishima, Tatsuya Nakadai, Tetsuro Tamba, Shichisaburo Amatsu, Yoshio Aoki, Jo Azumi, Akiji Kobayashi, Ichiro Nakaya, Kei Sato, Ryo Takeuchi; D: Masaki Kobayashi; W: Shinobu Hashimoto, Yasuhiko Takiguchi; C: Yoshio Miyajima; M: Toru Takemitsu.

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