Harakiri

Masaki Kobayashi, 1962

Spine #302

Picked by 3 guests

Action / Drama / History

Part of Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa

Criterion TMDB

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi

Written by Shinobu Hashimoto

Cinematography Yoshio Miyajima

Edited by Hisashi Sagara

Cast Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita, Tetsuro Tamba, Masao Mishima, Ichirō Nakatani, Kei Satō, Yoshio Inaba

Picked by

Johnnie To director

“[Translated] This is even better. This is also a black and white film, I remember. It's called Harakiri. Among Japanese films, besides Akira Kurosawa, my favorite is director Masaki Kobayashi. This film is truly chilling. After watching it, you feel a chill. Those who haven't seen it must watch it.”

Johnnie To

Koji Yakusho actor

“[Translated] This is Harakiri, the Japanese title is Seppuku. It's a film by Masaki Kobayashi. The lead actor, Tatsuya Nakadai, was my teacher when I became an actor. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here today.”

Koji Yakusho

Hideo Kojima cinematographer

“[Translated] And another one, Harakiri. In Japan, the title is Seppuku. This is very interesting, please watch it. The latter half became the basis for things like Spaghetti Westerns. I like it very much.”

Hideo Kojima

Also mentioned as part of Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa

Marianne Jean-Baptiste & Mike Leigh actor

“Because I saw an early Kurosawa set. Yeah. The First Films of Akira Kurosawa. Ha. Nice. I don’t think I’ve got this, actually. There’s two of them there, darling. Yeah. Okay, cool. That’s me, then.”

Marianne Jean-Baptiste & Mike Leigh

Benjamin Millepied actor

“So of course when it comes to movement, it's really important to study Kurosawa because I would start with the first film which is Sanshiro Sugata, which is a martial art film. There's an incredible scene in this film which is this duel between the two lead actors... It's just an incredible scene. But throughout you see how bodies roll and fight and fall... And how there's such intelligent cutting and movement and yet he has the ability to take a camera and go from seamlessly.”

Benjamin Millepied

Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes actor

“Oh, you have all the Akira Kurosawa films.”

Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes