Hello everyone,
For this Wednesday, we are showing a Japanese
classic movie, "Harakiri ( original title: Seppuku"), directed by
Masaki Kobayashi (more details below).
Please feel free to pass the message around and
invite your friends. Hope you can join us.
Regards,
Tom Co
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Title: Harakiri (original title: Seppuku)
Date and Time: October 9, Wednesday, 6:30-9
Place: 308 Cooper Ave, Hancock
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Partial List of Characters:
Tatsuya Nakadai
Akira Ishihama
Shima Iwashita
Tetsurô Tanba
Masao Mishima
US Rating: not rated (I think it is PG13 to R)
Language: Japanese (with English subtitle)
Length: 133 mins
Media: Bluray, Black and white
Summary: (by Written by Kevin Rayburn, via www.imdb.com)
"...An elder warrior, Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai)
seeks admittance to the house of a feudal lord to
commit the act [of harakiri]. There, he learns of the
fate of his son-in-law...Tsugumo thus sets in motion
a tense showdown of revenge against the house."
My Comments:
This a classic movie that is not as well known as other
samurai movies. But is not an action movie. Instead,
it explores and exposes the hypocrisy of the honor code
of the samurai, and the absence of humanity specially
when practiced without wisdom.
The acting was very good. Also, the cinematography, direction
and music is quite impressive.
There is a remake a few years ago directed by Takashi Miike
That version is available in Netflix online, but is not
recommended
in comparison to this 1962 original.
Miike's new version
may have better color and sharpness of picture, but suffers
quite a bit on extensive melodrama and bad acting.
The original movie is more on target with its skewering of
the honor code.
Warning: there is one scene (around 5 mins)
where a character
was performing ritual suicide using a blunt bamboo...if this is
too much, just
look away. After this, the other scenes
are not as difficult to
watch.
This movie is a little over 2 hrs. long so we will try to start
on time.
