Movies - Harakiri

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Harakiri (film)

	Movies - Harakiri

Harakiri (切腹, Seppuku) (1962) is a Japanese film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The story takes place between 1619 and 1630 during the Edo period and the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate. It tells of a ronin, Hanshiro Tsugumo, who instead of committing seppuku after his lord was disposed, chose to stay alive in order to look for his daughter and the son of another samurai who had committed the ritual suicide.

Plot

At the start of the film, Hanshiro Tsugumo shows up at the house of a feudal lord, Kageyu Saito, looking for a suitable place to commit seppuku. At the time, it is told, it was fairly common for disgraced samurai to make the same request, or threat, in order to receive a pittance from the lord of the house. To discourage Hanshiro, Kageyu Saito recounts the story of another ronin, Motome Chijiiwa, who made the same request earlier in the year and was forced by the samurai retainers of the house to go through with the threat. Tsugumo is not discouraged, however, and looks determined to prove that he isn't making idle threats.

While getting ready for the suicide, Hanshiro Tsugumo recounts his tale to Kageyu Saito and his retainers. His lord's house was considered a threat and toppled by forces of the shogunate. His friend, another samurai, committed seppuku and left Tsugumo to look after his son, who it turns out was Motome Chijiiwa. With the responsibility of looking after Chijiiwa and also his own daughter Miho, Hanshiro is unable to choose the 'honorable' way to end his life, and instead has to live in poverty and work menial jobs in order to support his family.

When they get older, Motome Chijiiwa and Miho Tsugumo end up getting married and have a son, Kingo, but still live on in poverty. When Chijiiwa and Kingo get ill, they can't afford the services of a physician and Chijiiwa comes up with the plot of threatening to commit seppuku at a lord's house with previously seen results. With no money, Miho and Kingo end up dying from their illnesses.

Before coming to Kageyu Saito's house, Hanshiro Tsugumo tracks down three retainers of the house, Hikokuro Omodaka, Hayato Yazaki and Umenosuke Kawabe, who he blames for the deaths of his family. Instead of killing them in combat, he disgraces them by cutting off the topknots of their hair.

After finishing his story, Hanshiro Tsugumo is attacked by the retainers of the furious lord Kageyu Saito. Honor forgotten, he has to fight all of them off alone, killing four, before succumbing to his wounds and finally committing seppuku to avoid getting killed by the retainers.

Themes

The story concentrates on the themes of honor and vanity. At the time, harakiri was looked as a means to retain one's honor, while living was considered a disgrace, even when doing good by looking after others. The vanity of the feudal lord Kageyu Saito is also shown. The outward appearance of honorability is shown to be more important to him than real honor. He orders the retainers disgraced by Hanshiro Tsugumo to commit seppuku, and makes sure those killed by Hanshiro are written off as casualties to illness so that his house would not appear weak.

Main cast

Tatsuya Nakadai
- Hanshiro Tsugumo
Rentaro Mikuni - Kageyu Saito
Shima Iwashita - Miho Tsugumo
Akira Ishihama - Motome Chijiiwa
Tetsuro Tamba
- Hikokuro Omodaka
Ichiro Nakaya - Hayato Yazaki
Yoshio Aoki - Umenosuke Kawabe

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Harakiri (film) ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Harakiri (film); it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Movies - Harakiri

Plot

Themes

Main cast

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay