Harakiri

Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri is one of the most visually impactful, yet simultaneously poetically nuanced, among the so-called Jidaigeki-films (period films) from post-war Japan.

With Harakiri, Kobayashi offers much more than the traditional samurai film's series of well-choreographed sword duels and battle scenes. His aim is primarily to demystify and de-heroize the samurai myth by problematizing the well-known code of honor that underlies the samurai's actions. In Harakiri, he depicts a hollow and corrupt samurai society that does not even respect the last honorable act – the ritual suicide, harakiri.

After the end of the Japanese Civil War in 1630, many unemployed samurai wander to wealthy landowners and request permission to perform harakiri on their property, hoping for sympathy and job offers. Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai, who also played in Kurosawa's Kagemusha and Ran) is such a ronin (masterless samurai) who one day visits the great clan lord Iyi to perform harakiri in his house. Here, Tsugumo learns the fate of another ronin, Chijiwa, who previously came on the same mission. He was denied work and died an ignoble death when forced to fulfill his samurai duty with a bamboo sword (having sold his samurai sword to feed his family). When Tsugumo tells his own story, it is revealed that Chijiwa was his son-in-law, and Tsugumo has now come to seek revenge on the Iyi clan, which he believes is a thoroughly corrupt gang permeated by corrupted attitudes towards honor and dignity.

As in several of Kobayashi's other films, it revolves around the independent, courageous individual standing up against a corrupt and oppressive system. It is about the struggle to uphold certain moral and ethical codes constantly threatened by human selfishness and greed. Harakiri is constructed in an intricate pattern of flashbacks that present the story backward and is characterized by a unique and striking visual beauty with its extremely well-composed black-and-white scope images.

Cinemateket in Oslo

Samurai - in War and Peace

Prior to the screening of HARAKIRI, it will be possible to try on a samurai helmet starting at 17.00. The film screening will be introduced by August Myrseth, a university lecturer from the Historical Museum.

The screening is done in collaboration with the Historical Museum.

Director

Masaki Kobayashi (1916-1996) was a Japanese film director. He made his first film, My Son's Youth, in 1952, but truly gained international recognition with the trilogy The Human Condition (1959-1961). The film series garnered considerable attention worldwide, solidifying his position as one of the most important Japanese filmmakers. Later, he directed Harakiri (1962) and Kwaidan (1964).

This film is part of