Review of Harakiri (1962) by Arshi R — 27 Jun 2010

Driven by Desperation.

This is not my era. Oh, it's not a region I know a whole lot about, either, but even my studies of European history basically end nearly thirty years before the film is set. Then, my knowledge goes sort of vague for a couple of centuries. Ergo, I will not be speaking toward the historical accuracy of the film. I suspect, given the narrow scope of its history, it's pretty good, since all you have to do is provide the setting. Certainly desperation transcends era and border. Especially the desperation shown here. The resolution is a little unusual, if you think about it, but how the story got to the place it's in is not.

During the Edo period, many samurai lost their livelihood. (This is one of the bits I don't really know enough about.) Apparently, this caused many of them to roam the land, asking permission from various landowners to commit seppuku on their lands. (This, I did know--hara-kiri is considered a vulgar term, and seppuku is a preferable one.) Somehow, this then became landowners giving them food and clothes and so forth to make them go away. Apparently, this is what the men were looking for in the first place. Anyway, first, Motome Chijiiwa (Akira Ishihama) shows up at the Iyi Clan's estate, and the clan rather forcibly gets him to follow through on what he says he'll do--using the bamboo sword he had been carrying. Not long after, Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) shows up with the same request. First, however, he demands the chance to tell his story so that the men of Iyi might learn by his example.

In fact, Tsugomo's story is a heartbreaking one. The men of Iyi, led by Kageyu Saito (Rentarô Mikuni), hear him out, but they are not disposed to care. To them, Tsugomo is just another ronin, a sword without a bearer, and any sob story he tells them is just a way to get their pity, and for preference their money. They see many men like him, and they are not going to change their new policy of making the men actually do what they say they're going to do. And, indeed, he may not be telling the whole truth. He may not, at least in theory, be telling any truth at all. He probably is, given the nature of this movie--[i]Rashomon[/i] it is not--but I suppose it is believable that the men of Iyi don't care.

The movie is a slow one. Mostly, it is told in flashback by Tsugomo, and mostly, that flashback is slow and quiet. Towards the end, it speeds up rather abruptly, but what you are watching is the decay of a man's life. He was prevented from seppuku early in the film on the grounds that he had his daughter, Miho (Shima Iwashita), to care for, but in the end, he doesn't even have that. (Incidentally, I went to college with a girl named Miho; it means "beautiful mountain," as I recall.) By the time he shows up on Kageyu's doorstep, everything he ever cared about is lost. Unlike the others roaming the land, he really does intend to go through with it. It's just that he has other things to resolve first. Only the movie is determined to show us the path that led him to that doorstep. It's a long, slow path, but it's really necessary in order to get to the excited ending.

Kurosawa this ain't, but it's probably a better imitation than most. (And, no, director Masaki Kobayashi wasn't necessarily trying for imitation, but it has the same feel of a lot of his period work.) It's quite simple stuff, without much work required in costume or set. There's a truly beautiful sword fight in a windy field late in the film, but large amounts of the story are either Tsugomo and the Iyi in a courtyard or else in the small home Tsugomo lived in after he lost his place. There aren't a lot of costume changes. All things considered, it's very simple--and simple is not, when you get right down to it, a bad thing for a film. It has a story to tell, and it tells it. It doesn't need flashy.