Sword’s Law
HARAKIRI (which is really called SEPPUKU), a truly savage piece of assault-course celluloid, was one of the first films I ever Shadowplayed, and I was happy to revisit it for Electric Sheep in the light of the welcome new DVD and BluRay from Masters of Cinema. Masaki Kobayashi might be best known for KWAIDAN (which is really called KAIDAN), but I actually prefer this one.
Buy –
Harakiri (Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD) [Masters of Cinema]
Or, if American, there’s the Criterion Blu:
Harakiri (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
September 24, 2011 at 12:24 am
Off-Topic: Latest FaBlog: Hommage A Guy Maddin
September 24, 2011 at 8:51 am
SEPPUKU and REBELLION are real masterpieces of cinema. Actually they aren’t even Samurai films but really period movies depicting the hypocrisy of feudalism.
But I don’t think they are anti-Samurai, because the most heroic characters in both are of course themselves swordsmen. What makes his films radical is to critique the system that holds them in place or actually look at them as part of a system.
September 24, 2011 at 11:10 am
But Kobayashi’s samurai heroes derive their courage and honour from themselves: ultimately the samurai code is corrupt.
Must get round to watching The Human Condition and Tokyo Saiban.
September 24, 2011 at 11:39 am
It’s certainly not some Macho claptrap, that’s for sure. In fact, REBELLION is unusual for being women centered and that made it popular in Japan, it became a cross-over appealing to its women’s film tradition(which is actually its dominant genre) and the guy’s movie Samurai fans, as per Donald Richie.
It’s a pity he didn’t make too many films. I think it was less than twenty. He was a great talent.
September 24, 2011 at 12:37 pm
A pity that so few of them are easily available, also. Still, the situation’s certainly improved from when Kwaidan was the only one you could realistically expect to come across.
September 25, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Guy Maddin is one of the few authentic geniuses working in film today, and I’m thrilled to hear that he’s teamed up with the sublime Udo Kier.
I’d love to know what role Udo plays in KEYHOLE, a modern-day riff on the Ulysses myth. Might I suggest the transsexual Tiresias, whom Ulysses visit in Hades? That sounds like Typecasting Heaven!
September 25, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Metempsychosis!