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Samurai movies need not be well-known category tales, just like westerns. They can develop to include tales of moral dilemmas and human sorrow. One of the finest of them, “Harakiri,” is about an older wandering samurai who takes his time to pose an impossible question to the head of a formidable clan. He manipulates the strong leader into a position where he is humiliated in front of his retainers by strictly following the Bushido Code, which dictates how all samurai must behave.
It is now 16:30. Samurai without jobs, known as ronin, prowl the countryside. There is peace in Japan, and that contributes to their unemployment. They have given their masters their hearts, minds, and swords, and as a result, they are now left adrift and unable to provide for their families. If a company today “downsized” a devoted employee with a lengthy tenure, it would be very similar. Only from the ground up does loyalty flow.
A shabby ronin called Tsugumo Hanshiro requests a meeting with the clan elder, Saito Kayegu, at the gate of Lord Iyi’s official mansion. (Rentaro Mikuni). He has no employment because Lord Geishu set him free. He asks authorization to commit suicide in the clan’s front courtyard. The ritualistic deed is referred to as harakiri, or seppuku (the Japanese title of the movie). It entails dismembering oneself with a short blade. A designated master swordsman is waiting to decapitate the samurai with a single, powerful strike after the blade pierces the air and slices from left to right.
Tsugumo wants to end his life because he feels ashamed of being a samurai without a work. Saito tells him a tale intended to deter him from doing so. There have been many of these appeals in the area, and in some cases the clan they appealed to saved the lives of the desperate samurais and gave them employment. They had no desire to perform harakiri at all. Saito claims that many tribes have caught on to this strategy, though. He recounts a tale involving Chijiwa Motome (Akira Ishihama), another ex-Lord Geishu. He claims that not long ago, he appeared in this forecourt and requested the same authorization. Saito agreed, but only if the rite was carried out right away. Motome pledged to commit suicide in his capacity as a samurai, but he first requested permission to make a quick personal visit. Saito saw this as a delaying tactic, and ordered Motome to disembowel himself then and there. Motome had pawned his short blade and had a cheap bamboo replacement, so this was not simple. He fell on this blunt blade, a man of honor, and caused much harm and suffering before being cut off at the head.
You see, Tsugumo, you best be sincere, Saito informs him. Tsugumo says, “I assure you I’m quite sincere, but first I request your permission to tell a story,” which will be heard by Saito and the household retainers who are seated solemnly around the courtyard’s edges.
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The 1962 film “Harakiri” was directed by Masaki Kobayashi (1916-1996), who is best known for the 1965 collection of ghost tales “Kwaidan,” one of the most gorgeous movies I’ve ever seen. Additionally, he produced the nine-hour epic “The Human Condition” (1959–1961), which criticized how the Bushido Code pervaded Japanese society and contributed to the mentality that caused World War II. In 1967, he also produced the movie “Samurai Rebellion,” which is about a guy who won’t give his wife to a superior.
His recurrent theme—clearly illustrated in “Harakiri”—is that fanatical adherence to codes of honor creates an environment in which humanist ideals are outlawed by elevating them above the value of life itself. The samurai class eventually gave rise to the Japanese militarist class, whose members were so indoctrinated with reverence for their superiors that the killing of soldiers in futile charges under fire and the deaths of kamikaze pilots were not seen as acts of war but rather as a quest for an honorable death. Yukio Mishima, a famously devout modern Japanese writer, saw Japan’s degradation of the code as a source of national shame. In 1970, after leading his small private army in an idiotic uprising to restore the Emperor’s honor, he himself committed seppuku. In “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters,” American writer-director Paul Schrader related his life’s tale. (1985).
Kobayashi creates a movie where there is only one correct version of the story, but its meaning completely depends on whose point of view you take. The film starts in a manner similar to “Rashomon,” in which a man appears at a gate and begins telling one of four versions of the same story. Who is correct? Saito, who is determined to prevent the Iyi clan’s generosity from being abused, or Tsugumo, who is determined to tell Saito and his family the entire Motome tale that led to his unfortunate incident with his pitiful bamboo sword.
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I shouldn’t give away the specifics of the tale Tsugumo recounts. I can only describe it as sad. He explains that Motome wasn’t a man attempting to put off dying by using the justification of requesting a delay. He was a man of real integrity, one who makes Saito and other totalitarian bureaucrats look foolish. Doing the correct thing often requires more courage than following convention. The Bushido Code relieves its followers of the burden of coming to their own moral judgments. Situational ethics is reflected in the movie “Harakiri,” which holds that the more you know about a person, the more you can comprehend his motivations.
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There is a sense of ritual in the story’s recounting. Tsugumo is granted three times the right to select the expert swordsman who will behead him. A messenger was sent to collect the man three times. Three times, the messenger comes back alone bearing the bad news that the selected man feels too sick to live today. Tsugumo doesn’t appear overly surprised, despite being clearly familiar with the retainers of the Iyi clan. He will ultimately use dramatic displays of the “sick” men’s lack of inner strength to produce in the courtyard as an explanation for the absence of the “sick” men. One of the best dramatic scenes in all of the samurai movies is provided by this.
It’s significant how the filmmaker Kobayashi lives out Tsugumo’s principles. Despite having been a lifelong pacifist, he chose not to serve in the military by refusing promotion to the officer class, choosing instead to face his chances alongside other conscripts.
The elegant composition and photography of this black-and-white movie reflect the ideals it contains. The viewpoint is frequently that of Saito, who is in a position of authority looking down on the lowly petitioner Tsugumo while seated at the top of the steps leading from the courtyard to the official residence. The perspective will then switch to Tsugumo, who is admiring the powerful figure. Angled shots include the bystanders who watch in silence as their leader and the helpless ronin talk. Then, a hand-held camera is used to imply the breakdown of tarditional patterns during a swordplay scene. Tsugumo’s story would require men with hearts of stone to not be affected, but these men were bred from birth to have such hearts.
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The opening scene of the movie will leave spectators wondering. We are gazing at an empty suit of armor, which serves as the Iyi clan’s emblem and a repository for its customs and ancestors. This symbol will eventually be shamed and revealed for the hollow man that it is. Furthermore, it is simple to draw comparisons between Saito’s callous logic and more recent political discussions wherein both the left and right’s rigid economic theories are used as justifications for ignoring human misery.
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Kobayashi’s “Samurai Rebellion,” Kurasawa’s “Rashomon,” and Schrader’s “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” are also included in my collection of great movies.
For more personality quizzes check this: The Departed Quiz.
