Harakiri (1962)

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⭐10/10

This is a classic Japanese samurai movie made in 1962, and these days is kinda best known for being the highest rated movie on Letterboxd and thus considered one of the best movies ever made. Obviously an old, foreign language classic movie is a bit intimidating and not something you want to jump into on a random Wednesday, but that's precisely what I did and I came out a believer. 

The beautiful thing about this movie is that it begins with a very simple premise and is easily digestible and you get attached to characters very quickly. I was nervous to watch a movie about harakiri (samurai ritual suicide) because in other media, I've obviously had no ability to relate to this concept and have never found stories surrounding it to be compelling in the least. The same is not true here. In fact, I would say this is an anti-samurai movie in a lot of ways, a criticism of the code and an examination of shared humanity. The movie makes the stakes and expectations very clear to start and so you can better understand the difficulties facing our main characters. 

The movie is one that kinda starts at the end, and then plays back from the beginning, so you know the outcomes but not how we arrive there. It interweaves a truly heart-wrenching story and knowing how it all ends makes it more powerful. Much of this movie is conversations between two people sitting in rooms, so it's impressive how engaging this movie is, and I found myself hanging on every word.

Because it's the 60s, it's not exactly the most graphic or bloody movie out there, but I will say that there are scenes that are extremely hard to watch that take on more meaning and more pain the further you go. A few scenes will haunt me for weeks to come without a doubt. However, there are a few true fight scenes, and while they are framed absolutely beautifully (see above), i would say the fight scenes were the only let down for me. Maybe they were to a 60s audience what Revenge of the Sith is to me, but now they are all a little slow and a bit boring. 

But I won't ding it too much for that! Otherwise I thought this movie was pretty much pitch perfect, and if it was remade today it would be worse. Awesome performances all around, especially by the main character played by Tatsuya Nakadai who is in all our favorite samurai movies. He is kinda what Clint Eastwood was to westerns, from what I gather, and is a powerhouse here. 

Awesome movie. I would certainly say this is one to not be intimidated by, and could be enjoyed by anyone. I'm glad I finally took the leap and knocked it off my list. 

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