Review of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) by Brett B — 24 Jan 2014
A highly stylized hitman movie which succeeds brilliantly in mixing genres and cultures. Ghost Dog is a unique character who lives in solitude on a rooftop and follows the code of the samurai warrior, while sporadically working as a hitman for a mobster whom he considers to be his master.
His best and only friend is a Tahitian ice-cream salesman named Raymond who only speaks French thus complicating communication between the two. This is an iconic performance by Forest Whitaker who skillfully plays the character Ghost Dog.
A lot of the films humor is drawn from the friendship between Ghost Dog and Raymond, by translating his French dialog we are shown that the two friends are actually able to understand each other better than either of them realizes.
The film uses a few elements from the film Leon: The Professional, but what is interesting is that director Jim Jarmusch makes a bigger effort to show this, rather than hide it and with a lot of stylistic shootout scenes, quirky characters and a philosophical approach Ghostdog: The Way of the Samurai is a film that is unique even though it has a few borrowed elements.
This review of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) was written by Brett B on 24 Jan 2014.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai has generally received very positive reviews.
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