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Seppuku (aka "Harakiri") |
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1962
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| The Way of the Warrior: Of all the marvelous tragedies which abound in Japanese cinema, one of the finest ever made is Seppuku, which was released in 1962. This beautiful black and white classic was based on a novel by Yasuhiko Takiguchi, and it is one of the most brilliant commentaries ever filmed on the nature of traditional Japanese values—particularly on the ancient code of Bushido, the Way of the Warrior. |
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Seppuku has recently been released on DVD in the “Criterion Collection” series, and I would urgently recommend that any serious film buff pick it up. It is an incredible movie, exquisitely shot in a mansion typical of 17th century Japanese architecture. And although it’s all shot in black and white, the cinematography and art direction are amazing! This film is full of props, paintings, costumes and settings which are not only emblematic of the period…but also wonderfully evocative of the Japanese sense of drama in general. The film is set in the year 1630, during a time of great political and economic upheaval in Japan…a period for which Westerners have no historical analog, except perhaps the Great Depression. The Shogun has been pursuing a series of political pogroms designed to consolidate his power--deliberately destroying the houses of many provincial lords. As a direct result, literally thousands upon thousands of loyal feudal retainers (and their families) have been put out of work. Normally, a samurai would have no problem finding a new lord to serve; a trained military man is always useful in a nation where squabbling clans are constantly at each other’s throats. Unfortunately, the Shogun has also established a highly inconvenient period of peace in Japan…and no one is hiring new retainers. No one wants another mouth to feed, when they have no use for a swordsman. The loyal men of many fallen lords have been left out in the cold to starve by the thousands…or to find some other way to support themselves, until the next war comes along. But how long can a man live without honest work? Especially a proud man, of a noble warrior class, who was born and raised to break before he bends? Poverty comes hard to a samurai, and humiliation even harder. After eight or nine years of slowly worsening penury, many of these men would prefer to die than continue to live in squalor. The first to come to this conclusion walked up to the gates of nobleman’s mansion on a fine spring morning and shocked the entire household by asking permission to commit ritual suicide in the family’s sacred garden. After waiting a sufficient length of time to be certain that he would never again serve honorably in a noble house, this man had decided that death was preferable to a life of misery. His plan to kill himself came to naught, however; the master of the house was so moved by the man’s adherence to the traditional values of Bushido that he took him on as a retainer right away. In a time where so many men are so desperate and so hungry, the news of this happy event spread like wildfire. Soon, hundreds of samurai were showing up at the gates of dozens of noble houses, hoping to earn a hand-out with a mention of ritual suicide. Some of them would ask to commit seppuku within the household; others threatened to disembowel themselves outside the gates in the middle of the street. Embarrassed and shamed by these threats, many sympathetic noblemen handed out a few pennies to these men, if only to make them go away. And all of this being said, at last our movie begins. Enter the impoverished samurai Hanshiro Tsugumo, who lost his livelihood nine years ago. He was a loyal retainer of the Lord of Geishu, one of 12,000 men turned out into the cold when the Shogun destroyed his master’s house. In the opening scenes of the film, Hanshiro arrives at the gates of a well-appointed noble house and politely requests the privilege of committing seppuku within its walls. Received with thin courtesy by the majordomo of the clan, Hanshiro is soon seated comfortably in a receiving room. Here he is told the story of the last masterless samurai who arrived at these walls, a few months before. The young man’s name was Motome Chijiwa, and by a strange coincidence, this Motome Chijiwa was also once a retainer of the Lord of Geishu. He too arrived on a clear morning and requested the privilege of dying by seppuku within the house. But Motome Chijiwa had come to the wrong place for a hand-out. The clan living within these magnificent walls is made up of hard and unforgiving men. They come from the Old School: they believe that when a man comes to one’s door to commit seppuku, he doesn’t leave until he’s committed seppuku. Pretenders like Motome, who simply use the old ritual as a pretext for begging, are forced by this clan to carry out their own self-destructive threats…and made to commit suicide with their own samurai swords, as the ritual demands. A man’s sword, as they say, is his soul. Sadly, Motome’s swords were uniquely unsuitable for the seppuku ritual! The beggar boy died an agonizing death, struggling to disembowel himself with the dull blade of his own wakazashi. The final stroke of mercy, which should have come quickly from the “second” appointed by his noble hosts, was terribly slow in coming…his persecutors would not strike off Motome’s head and end his pain until he had managed to draw the sword all the way through his innards not once, but twice. The story of this terrible cruelty is told to Our Hero, Hanshiro, as a means of persuading him to leave the house. Seppuku, Hanshiro is told, is not an idle threat within these precincts: if he enters the garden of the clan, he will be expected to die as per the ancient ritual. Hanshiro Tsugumo hears all of this with great calm and equanimity. The majordomo need have no fear, he says: he is ready to die today. How and why Hanshiro Tsugumo came to this fateful decision is what this movie is all about. Amazingly enough, in all that I have told you here, I have given away almost nothing of the film’s plot; I have simply explained its premise. It takes nearly another 90 minutes of film to bring this movie to its gory, magnificent conclusion—and I wouldn’t spoil that journey for you for all the tea in China. Seppuku is a savage, satirical, heroic and impassioned outcry against the excesses of Japanese traditional values. It is a vicious toppling of all the brutal, bloody, inhuman lies which can hide themselves beneath a code like Bushido…and any traditional notion of honor and propriety, for that matter. It is a celebration of what is truly noble and worthy within any human being, and a bitter condemnation of the pompous masks which we so often think can replace a genuine sense of honor. This is a movie that only a great Japanese director could have made, based upon a book which only a great Japanese novelist could have written. Masaki Kobayashi, the director, left us with many profound and beautiful films, when he died in 1996: nonetheless, this is the pinnacle of his achievement as an artist. Every performance by every actor is absolutely brilliant…particularly that of Tatsuya Nakadai, who took up the leading role as Hanshiro. The haunted, hungry, hollow-eyed intensity of his face has become an icon of Japanese cinema: once you see this film you will know why this performance can never be forgotten. Speaking solely for myself, I found this movie much, much better and
more powerful than the vast majority of classic Western tragedies…including
MacBeth. I recommend it most urgently to just about anyone who
likes good films, and can read fast enough to take in the subtitles. Please
see it as soon as you can. --written for Video Picks © 2000 Arinn Dembo All Rights Reserved |
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