Harakiri

Masaki Kobayashi

 
Harakiri Criterion DVD

DVD

2 Discs

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price:$31.96

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  • Japan
  • 1962
  • 133 minutes
  • Black and White
  • 2.35:1
  • Japanese

SYNOPSIS: Following the collapse of his clan, unemployed samurai Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to commit ritual suicide on his property. Iyi’s clansmen, believing the desperate ronin is merely angling for charity, try to force him to eviscerate himself—but they have underestimated his honor and his past. Winner of the 1963 Cannes Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize, Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri is a scathing denouncement of feudal authority and hypocrisy.

Cast & CreditsOpen

Cast

Hanshiro TsugumoTatsuya Nakadai
Kageyu SaitoRentaro Mikuni
Motome ChijiiwaAkira Ishihama
Miho Tsugumo Shima Iwashita
Hikokuro OmodakaTetsuro Tamba
Tango InabaMasao Mishima
Hayato YazakiIchiro Nakaya
Masakatsu FukushimaKei Sato
Jinnai ChijiiwaYoshio Inaba
Umenosuke KawabeYoshiro Aoki

Credits

DirectorMasaki Kobayashi
ScreenplayShinobu Hashimoto
Original storyYasuhiko Takiguch
CinematographyYoshio Miyajima
EditingHisashi Sagara
Art directionJunichi Ozumi and Shigemasa Toda
MusicToru Takemitsu
ProducerTatsuo Hosoya

Disc Features

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Exclusive video introduction by Japanese-film historian Donald Richie
  • Rare excerpt of a Directors Guild of Japan video interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, moderated by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda (Double Suicide)
  • New video interviews with star Tatsuya Nakadai and screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto
  • Poster gallery
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • A 32-page booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Joan Mellen and a reprint of her 1972 interview with Kobayashi

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Harakiri: Kobayashi and History

By Joan MellenAugust 22, 2005

Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi came of age in the postwar moment, a time when filmmakers were at the vanguard of dissident expression in that country. Drawing Read more »

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