Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2012)
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Reviews Counted: 38
Fresh: 30 | Rotten: 8
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 3,485
My Rating
Movie Info
From visionary auteur Takashi Miike comes the story of a mysterious samurai who arrives at the doorstep of his feudal lord, requesting an honorable death by ritual suicide in his courtyard. The lord threatens him with the brutal tale of Motome, a desperate young ronin who made a similar request with ulterior motives, only to meet a grisly end. Undaunted, the samurai begins to tell a story of his own, with an ending no one could see coming. With stunning cinematography and gripping performances,
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Cast
-
Ebizô Ichikawa
Hanshiro -
Eita
Motome, Young Ronin -
Hikari Mitsushima
Miho -
Naoto Takenaka
Tajiri -
Munetaka Aoki
Hikokuro Omodaka -
Takashi Sasano
Priest -
Baijaku Nakamura
Jinnai Chijiiwa -
Koji Yakusho
Kageyu
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All Critics (38) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (30) | Rotten (8)
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai reveals yet another facet of this always-unpredictable filmmaker: a flair for compassionate, humane melodrama.
Top CriticA quiet, narratively layered period drama with a focus squarely on character.
Miike can't seem to get enough of Hanshiro's heroics. That's not just visual excess, though.
A 3-D epic that, despite its title, is more of a soap opera than a swordplay thriller.
It's an indelible picture of a cold-hearted ruling class that has allowed self-interest and hypocrisy to override its own humanity.
Miike brings a formal, elegant restraint to his usual flair for wild theatrics.
HK:DOAS is a beautifully artistic, yet unflinching revenge film; distorted by unnecessary 3D and 45 minutes of additional runtime.
A cinematic work of art, presenting a world in which humanity is banished in favour of the rituals of an ever-warring people
It's not about Bushido, it's about its representation.
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai is another solid rather than flamboyant film from Japan's master of extreme Takashi Miike.
Hara-Kiri may be a lesser Miike work, but it's still a (literally) gutsy exercise in prolonged narrative recursiveness.
Miike's remake is actually less intense than the original.
Pointless 3D, and with the way the story was told, there were no surprises. It does however feature the most horrific suicide I've watched on film.
In turn, cruel, savage, humane, joyful and finally devastating and visually transcendent. Originally in 3-D.
The tragedy Miike aims for somehow eludes him within these under-lit interiors and shooting through netting that often blurs facial expressions
The movie is tellingly named after the blunt, informal term for the ritual (hara-kiri means "cut belly") and effectively deglorifies these "honorable" ritual suicides.
A worthy remake of the 1962 classic at just the right time, given the authoritarianism that led to the Fukushima disaster.
There are many more enlightening and entertaining films out there about ancient Japanese traditions that are far more deserving of your time.
Audience Reviews for Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
Super Reviewer
The music is ridiculous. Soft piano accompanies most of the melodramatic scenes of Hanshiro's flashback. Now, of all the nonsense to do in a period film with samurai this takes the crown! I won't mention the ludicrously emphasised disgusting sound effects. The 3D gives nothing essential to the film; it only distracts with 'pretty' but unneeded weather effects that pretend to give some symbolic significance to the drama. The final showdown at the finale of the original is probably one of the most breathtaking fighting scenes in the history of cinema (it was exhilerating, suberbly acted, choeographed with precision, looked totally realistic and most of all, it worked like katharsis), but this remake totally ruins the actual significance of the scene by emphasizing the melodrama of the character (the 'bad-ass' glances of the main actor don't help either). The film overall gives the feeling of a superficial, light piece to be consumed by the Tarantino-bred younger generations and lacks the focus and the purity of Masaki Kobayashi's masterpiece. The cinematography is very good though with nice colours and subtle camera movements. The overall rhythm suffers too with overlong melodramatic moments and overlong coda after the death of the hero.
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- Hara-Kiri - Tid eines Samurai (DE)
- Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (Ichimei) (UK)
