Seppuku (1962)

Director:

Masaki Kobayashi

Writers:

Shinobu Hashimoto (writer)
Yasuhiko Takiguchi (story)

Release Date:

4 August 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Peace in 17th-century Japan causes the Shogunate's breakup of warrior clans, throwing thousands of samurai out of work and into poverty...

Plot Keywords:

Seppuku | Revenge | Samurai | Suicide | Hara Kiri

Awards:

8 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tatsuya Nakadai	...	Hanshiro Tsugumo
Rentaro Mikuni	...	Kageyu Saito
Shima Iwashita	...	Miho Tsugumo
Akira Ishihama	...	Motome Chijiiwa
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shichisaburo Amatsu	...	Retainer
Yoshio Aoki	...	Umenosuke Kawabe
Jo Azumi	...	Ichiro Shimmen
Hisashi Igawa	...	Retainer
Yoshio Inaba	...	Jinai Chijiiwa
Akiji Kobayashi		(as Shôji Kobayashi)
Masao Mishima	...	Tango Inaba
Ichirô Nakaya	...	Hayato Yazaki
Kei Sato	...	Masakazu
Ryo Takeuchi	...	Retainer
Tetsuro Tamba	...	Hikokuro Omodaka

Directed by
Masaki Kobayashi

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Shinobu Hashimoto		writer
Yasuhiko Takiguchi		story

Produced by
Tatsuo Hosoya	....	producer

Original Music by
Tôru Takemitsu

Cinematography by
Yoshio Miyajima

Film Editing by
Hisashi Sagara

Production Design by
Junichi Ozumi
Jusho Toda		(as Shigemasa Toda)

Production Companies

• Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

Distributors

• Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo (1962) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Signal International (1964) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Criterion Collection, The (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1975) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Japanski Sinemaskop (1964) (Yugoslavia) (theatrical)
• Shocking Videos (????) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Harakiri (USA)

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:X | France:U | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

Trivia:

Seppuku and harakiri (the US working title) both mean to commit ritual suicide in Japanese. However, seppuku is the formal term, derived from the kanji characters for "hara" (belly) and "kiri" (cut); harakiri is the cruder, less polite term for this act.

Quotes:

Hanshiro Tsugumo: After all, this thing we call samurai honor is ultimately nothing but a facade.

Great movie

When I first saw this movie, I did not know much about it. I saw it for a class so I was given a little background of the time period. In fact I was pretty much just told this:

This movie takes place during the time where many Samurai were left ronins, or masterless. These samurai were unable to find work and thereby were left in poverty. Eventually many would go up to clans and ask to commit seppuku.

It was dishonorable to refuse such a "noble" request, but most clans did not want samurai to kill themselves on their property so they would just pay the samurai to go elsewhere.

So I watched the movie and well... I loved it. During the class discussion the next day I found most people hated the movie. Not because it was a bad movie, but because of how it made people feel about themselves. And that's exactly why this movie is genius. If you're interested in watching this movie, do not read the summary in detail - reading the summary in detail will deprive you of what one of the key things that made the movie great IMO.