Harakiri (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #24 extract: Harakiri (1962)

Harakiri is an absolutely stunning masterpiece, laced and structured with thick atmosphere, perfect pacing, faultless performances, beautiful fight choreography, pin-point mise en scène, profound drama and eloquent cinematic language. 

Through its deconstruction of one samurai's seppuku, or, harakiri ( suicide by disembowelment), this narrative comments on the mid 17th century Japanese feudal system. In such, it puts into conflict concepts of tradition, family, honour and compassion through a series of episodic flashbacks. The assertion made by this thematic clash is that honour is mere a facade that the most noble of people retain to house compassion and a heart of greater depth than any ideology or way of life. For the way in which this intricate concept is brought to life and executed, it is undeniable that Harakiri is one of the all-time-great films and a picture that every cinephile needs to see.