Review of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) by David H — 31 Jan 2012

Speaking from a technical point of view, a Jim Jarmusch film can be quickly identified by its structure. Unlike a conventional movie, where the film painstakingly tries to make the edits invisible, Jim Jarmusch purposely disorients the viewers with its editing by fading out to black when a sequence ends and fading in to a new image when the next sequence begins.

There are several benefits to this type of filmmaking. One being that it allows time to be free flowing. Take for example, a sequence that takes place during the day. Now when the screen fades (indicating that the sequence is over), the next sequence when it fades in, gives the story complete liberty to start wherever it pleases: night, day, afternoon, etc.

This editing device can be traced back to Jim Jarmusch's first feature film, Permanent Vacation (1980) and subsequently to Stranger than Paradise (1984), Down by Law (1989), Mystery Train (1991), and Dead Man (1995).

Now the reason why I made such a big deal about this is because in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Jim Jarmusch improves upon this editing device by accompanying the fade out with a text (a selected quote from the book, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai). This text sets up a specific theme for the next sequence that fades in.

To put it simply, I really enjoyed this film because of the film's unique structure and also because of the hilarious comic relief characters: Joseph Rigano and Vinny Vella. Both by the way share a great scene in Jim Jarmusch's future film Coffee and Cigarettes (2003).