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Home , Castle of Sand, Childhood Days, Double Suicide, Gonza the Spearman, Keisuke Kinoshita, Masaki Kobayashi

October 8, 2019 (XXXIX: 7) : HARAKIRI (1962, 133m) The version of this Goldenrod Handout sent out in our Monday mailing, and the one online, has hot links. Spelling and Style—use of italics, quotation marks or nothing at all for titles, e.g.—follows the form of the sources.

DIRECTOR Masaki Kobayashi WRITING wrote the screenplay from a novel by Yasuhiko Takiguchi. PRODUCER Tatsuo Hosoya MUSIC Tôru Takemitsu CINEMATOGRAPHY Yoshio Miyajima EDITING Hisashi Sagara

The film was the winter of the Jury Special Prize and nominated for the Palm d’Or at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival.

CAST ...Tsugumo Hanshirō (1979), Trial* (Documentary) (1983), and Rentarō Mikuni...Saitō Kageyu Shokutaku no nai ie* (1985). He also wrote the screenplays Akira Ishihama...Chijiiwa Motome for A Broken Drum (1949) and The Yotsuda Phantom Shima Iwashita...Tsugumo Miho (1949). Tetsurō Tamba...Omodaka Hikokuro *Also wrote Ichiro Nakatani...Yazaki Hayato Masao Mishima...Inaba Tango SHINOBU HASHIMOTO (b. April 18, 1918 in Hyogo Kei Satō...Fukushima Masakatsu Prefecture, —d. July 19, 2018 (age 100) in Tokyo, Yoshio Inaba...Chijiiwa Jinai Japan) was a Japanese screenwriter (71 credits). A frequent Yoshiro Aoki...Kawabe Umenosuke collaborator of , he wrote the scripts for such internationally acclaimed films as (1950) MASAKI KOBAYASHI (b. February 14, 1916 in and Seven (1954). These are some of the other Hokkaido, Japan—d. October 4, 1996 (age 80) in Tokyo, films he wrote for: (1952), Eagle of the Pacific (1953), Japan) was a Japanese film director (22 credits) and I Live in Fear (1955), Darkness at Noon (1956), Throne of screenwriter (9 credits), best known for writing and Blood (1957), Stakeout (1958), (1958), directing the epic trilogy The Human Condition (1959– A Whistle in My Heart (1959), I Want to Be a Shellfish 1961), as well as the samurai films Harakiri (1962), for (1959), The Lost Alibi (1960), Storm Over the Pacific which he won the Jury Special Prize and was nominated (1960), (1960), for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and (1960), Ghost Story of Kakui Street (1961), Happyakuman (1967), and Kwaidan (1964), for which he, once again, seki ni idomu otoko (1961), Harakiri (1962), Attack both won the Jury Special Prize and was nominated for the Squadron! (1963), Brand of Evil (1964), The Outrage Palm d’Or. He was also nominated for the Palm d’Or for (1964), Revenge (1964), (1965), The Nihon no seishun (1968). He also directed: Youth of the Son Great White Tower (1966), Samurai Rebellion (1967), (1952), Sincerity (1953), Three Loves* (1954), Somewhere Japan's Longest Day (1967), Hell in the Pacific (1968), The Under the Broad Sky (1954), Beautiful Days (1955), Last Day of Hsianyang (1968), Hitokiri (1969), The Fountainhead (1956), The Thick-Walled Room (1956), I Shadow Within (1970), Dodes'ka-den (1970), The Human Will Buy You (1956), Black River (1957), The Inheritance Revolution (1973), Yellow Dog (1973), Village of Eight (1962), Inn of Evil (1971), The Fossil (1974), Moeru aki Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—2

Gravestones (1977), Lake of Illusions (1982), and I Want to the Break of Dawn (2012), The Human Trust (2013), Be a Shellfish (2008). Giovanni's Island (2014), Lear on the Shore (2017), and Henkan Koshonin Itsuka, Okinawa o YOSHIO MIYAJIMA (b. Torimodosu (2018). February 3, 1910 in Nagono, Japan—d. RENTARŌ MIKUNI (b. January February 21, 1998) was a 20, 1923 in Gunma, Japan—d. Japanese cinematographer April 14, 2013 (age 90) in Inagi, (45 credits). He worked Tokyo, Japan) was a Japanese film frequently with Masaki actor (190 credits). The 1987 film Kobayashi. These are some Shinran: Path to Purity, which he of the films he worked on: wrote and directed, was awarded Utanô yononaka (1936), the Jury Prize and was nominated Jinsei keiba (1938), War for the Palm d’Or at the Cannes and Peace (1947), Violence (1952), Before Dawn (1953), Film Festival. These are some of the films he acted in: The The Beauty and the Dragon (1955), Wedding Day (1956), Good Fairy (1951), Boyhood (1951), Fireworks Over the Sea Joyu (1956), Behold Thy Son (1957), Glow of the Firefly (1951), Sword for Hire (1952), Woman of Shanghai (1952), (1958), Naked Sun (1958), The Human Condition I: No The Blue Revolution (1953), Eagle of the Pacific (1953), The Greater Love (1959), The Human Condition II: Road to Lovers (1953), Till We Meet Again (1955), The Burmese Eternity (1959), The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Harp (1956), Stepbrothers (1957), The Eagle and the Hawk Prayer (1961), Love Under the Crucifix (1962), Harakiri (1957), Face in the Dark (1958), The Outsiders (1958), (1962), Kwaidan (1964), Live Your Own Way (1967), Ballad of the Cart (1959), The Catch (1961), The Empire of Passion (1978), Akô-jô danzetsu (1978), and Revolutionary (1962), The Outcast (1962), Harakiri Shikake-nin Baian (1981). (1962), Hell's Kitchen (1962), Escape from Hell (1963), Kwaidan (1964), A Fugitive from the Past (1965), TATSUYA NAKADAI (b. December 13, 1932 in Tokyo, the Outlaw (1967), Profound Desires of the Gods (1968), Japan) is a Japanese film actor (162 credits) famous for the City of Beasts (1970), Men and War (1970), Shadow of wide variety of characters he has portrayed and many Deception (1971), Yomigaeru daichi (1971), Confessions collaborations with seminal Japanese film directors, such as Among Actresses (1971), Zatoichi at Large (1972), Journey Akira Kurosawa and . He was featured Into Solitude (1972), Coup d'Etat (1973), The Possessed in 11 films directed by Masaki Kobayashi, including The (1976), Never Give Up (1978), Sailor Suit and Machine Human Condition trilogy (1959-1961), wherein he starred Gun (1981), The Street of Desire (1984), A Promise (1986), as the lead character Kaji, plus Harakiri (1962), Samurai Beyond the Shining Sea (1986), River of Fireflies (1987), A Rebellion (1967) and Kwaidan (1964). These are some of Taxing Woman's Return (1988), Wuthering Heights (1988), the films he appeared in: (1954), Hi no tori Shiny Moss (1992), The Friends (1994), Turning Point (1956), Hadashi no seishun (1956), The Thick-Walled Room (1994), Free and Easy 18 (2007), Free and Easy 20 (2009), (1956), Ôban (1957), Untamed Woman (1957), A Someday (2011), Chronicle of My Mother (2011), and Dangerous Hero (1957), Black River (1957), Kampai! Miai Kuchita teoshi guruma (2014). kekkon (1958), A Boy and Three Mothers (1958), Conflagration (1958), Naked Sun (1958), When a Woman AKIRA ISHIHAMA (b. January 29, 1935 in Tokyo, Ascends the Stairs (1960), (1961), (1962), Japan) is a Japanese film actor (57 credits). These are some The Inheritance (1962), Love Under the Crucifix (1962), of the films he has appeared in: Boyhood (1951), Fireworks High and Low (1963), (1966), Today Over the Sea (1951), Youth of the Son (1952), Nami We Kill, Tomorrow We Die! (1968), Battle of the Japan Sea (1952), Sincerity (1953), Somewhere Under the Broad Sky (1969), Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival (1970), Inn of Evil (1954), The Tattered Wings (1955), Christ in Bronze (1971), The Gate of Youth (1975), Blue Christmas (1978), (1955), White Devilfish (1956), The Rose on His Arm Hunter in the Dark (1979), (1980), Willful (1956), Namida (1956), The Unbalanced Wheel (1957), Murder (1981), Return from the River Kwai (1989), The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959), Farewell Summer of the Moonlight Sonata (1993), East Meets West to Spring (1959), Marry a Millionaire (1959), Towering (1995), After the Rain (1999), Spellbound (1999), Waves (1960), Bitter Spirit (1961), The Bridge Between Vengeance for Sale (2011), To Dance with the White Dog (1962), Harakiri (1962), Yopparai tengoku (1962), Day- (2012), Yamato (2015), Zatoichi: The Last (2010), Until Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—3

Dream (1964), The Snow Woman (1968), Orgies of Edo Blackmail Is My Life (1968), Black Lizard (1968), The 5- (1969), Devil's Flute (1979), and Itosato (2018). Man Army (1969), Yakuza hijoshi - mushyo kyodai (1969), Yakuza bangaichi: massatsu (1969), Crimson Bat - Oichi: SHIMA IWASHITA (b. January 3, 1941 in Tokyo, Wanted, Dead or Alive (1970), The Scandalous Adventures Japan) is a Japanese actress who has appeared in about 100 of Buraikan (1970), Men and War (1970), Postwar Secrets films and many TV productions (117 credits). She is (1970), The Wolves (1971), Silence (1971), Under the Flag married to film director , in whose films of the Rising Sun (1972), The Water Margin (1972), Tidal she has frequently appeared. These are some of the films Wave (1973), The (1974), Karate Inferno she has appeared in: Dry Lake (1960), Late Autumn (1974), Karate Bear Fighter (1975), Seven Nights in Japan (1960), Killers on Parade (1961), Epitaph to My Love (1976), Zero Pilot (1976), The Alaska Story (1977), Message (1961), A Roaring Trade (1962), Kono ni uruwashi (1962), from Space (1978), Kôtei no inai hachigatsu (1978), Never Harakiri (1962), An Autumn Afternoon (1962), Kigeki: Give Up (1978), Hunter in the Dark (1979), Flames of Detatoko shôbu - 'Chinjarara monogatari' yori (1962), Glory Blood (1981), Samurai Reincarnation (1981), The Wild on the Summit (1962), Sing, Young People! (1963), Daisy (1981), The Imperial Navy (1981), Suspicion (1982), (1963), Legend of a Duel to the Death (1963), Samurai from Conquest (1982), Marco Polo (TV Mini-Series) (1983), Nowhere (1964), Assassination (1964), The Scarlet Camellia Battle Anthem (1983), The Geisha (1983), Station to (1964), The Fool Arrives with a Tank (1964), Snow Country Heaven (1984), Cabaret (1986), Be Free! (1986), Night (1965), Radishes and Carrots (1965), Captive's Island Train (1987), Twilight of the Cockroaches (1987), Four (1966), Onna no issho (1967), (1969), Red Days of Snow and Blood (1989), Genji monogatari (TV Lion (1969), The Shadow Within (1970), Forbidden Affair Series) (1991), The Hit Man (1991), Female Neo Ninjas (1970), Black Picture Album (1971), Man on a False Flight (1991), Peking Man (1997), Blind Beast vs Dwarf (2001), (1971), The Petrified Forest (1973), The Demon (1978), Graveyard of Honor (2002), The Cat Returns (2002), The Politicians (1983), MacArthur's Children (1984), Time Violent Fire (2002), (2002), and of Wickedness (1985), (1986), Yakuza Doomsday: The Sinking of Japan (2006). Ladies (1986), (1990), Yakuza Ladies: The Final Battle (1990), Sharaku (1995), Yakuza Ladies: Blood Ties (1995), Moonlight Serenade (1997), Ohaka ga nai! (1998), Owls' Castle (1999), Spy Sorge (2003), and Kamogawa shokudô (TV Mini-Series) (2016).

TETSURŌ TAMBA (b. July 17, 1922 in Tokyo, Japan—d. September 24, 2006 (age 84) in Tokyo, Japan) was a Japanese film actor (336 credits) with a career spanning five decades. These are some of his many roles: Satsujin Yôgisha (1952), Senkan Yamato (1953), Wakaki hi no takuboku: Kumo wa tensai de aru (1954), Twilight Saloon (1955), Seiki no shôhai (1956), Kenji to sono imôto Andrea Grunert: “Kobayashi, Masaki” (Senses of (1956), The Depths (1957), Female Slave Ship (1960), The Cinema) Gambling Samurai (1960), Daredevil in the Castle (1961), Masaki Kobayashi’s career coincides with the so- (1961), Minami taiheiyô nami takashi called Golden Age of Japanese cinema in the and (1962), Kuro to aka no hanabira (1962), Hokori takaki 1960s. Despite the fact that some of his films such as the chosen (1962), Taiheiyo no g-men (1962), Gang tai Gang war trilogy Ningen no jōken (The Human Condition, (1962), Harakiri (1962), A Flame at the Pier (1962), Hell's 1959-1961) and (Harakiri, 1962) had won Kitchen (1962), Gang and G-Men 2 (1963), Tokyo international critical acclaim,1 the centenary of his birth in aantachibiru: dasso (1963), Three Outlaw Samurai (1964), February 2016 passed almost unnoticed in the Western Samurai from Nowhere (1964), Assassination (1964), The media.2 Kobayashi has been largely forgotten by the Shogun's Vault (1964), The 7th Dawn (1964), Revenge average Japanese filmgoer, and outside Japan interest in his (1964), Kwaidan (1964), The Birth of Judo (1965), work is much lower than it is for the films of his (1965), The Secret of the Urn (1966), You contemporaries, such as Akira Kurosawa. Only Live Twice (1967), Army Intelligence 33 (1968), Kobayashi’s politically and ethically Diamonds of the Andes (1968), Snake Woman's Curse uncompromising and economically risk-taking attitude put (1968), Gambler's Farewell (1968), Delinquent Boss (1968), him in conflict with the studios he worked with, Shōchiku Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—4 and : this might explain the fact that he made only with its combination of aesthetics, historical research and 22 films. Moreover, his critical view of militarism in emotions are as vibrant as ever. Japanese history and the entanglement of politics and the Born on the northern island of Hokkaido, economy in Japanese society are topics that are not Kobayashi spent his youth in his hometown near attractive to young Japanese people. However, they are still the mountains. His penchant for views from a height was burning issues in Japan and in the modern world, more developed during these years, when he enjoyed skiing on meaningful than ever before. The Human Condition is not his home island. Breathtaking views of the mountains only a landmark film putting a harsh light on Japanese filmed on Hokkaido appear in The Human Condition, imperialism during World and other films also contain War II, it is a remarkable and impressive shots of mountain universal statement against landscapes. Not unlike war. Harakiri, Kurosawa, Kobayashi uses Kwaidan (1964), Jōi- meteorological conditions such uchi: Hairyō-tsuma as wind, snow, storms and heavy shimatsu (Samurai Rebellion, rain to add movement to his 1967) or Inochi bō frames. His insistence on natural no furō (Inn of Evil, 1971) – elements creates a broader all bearing the director’s context for his protagonists, unique signature – reveal the connecting them even more complex interplay between clearly to a culture in which the content and form, morality contemplation of nature is and aesthetics. They show in central and in which there is an a most original way how omnipresent awareness that the traditional forms can be used as a tool for political fragility of human existence depends so much on natural criticism and ethical reflection. conditions. Kobayashi was one of the finest depicters of Kobayashi returned to Hokkaido to shoot his war Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s, and explored the trilogy. He left the island to study ancient oriental arts and war and post-war situation by addressing controversial philosophy at the prestigious in Tokyo topics such as corruption, economic exploitation and the in the 1930s. After graduation in 1941, he entered denial of war atrocities. The Human Condition was such a Shōchiku Studios but was drafted into the army shortly great international success in the 1960s that a remake was after and sent to Harbin, Manchuria. Being a pacifist, he produced for television in 1963 directed by Takeshi Abe. refused promotion to higher ranks several times. This is a It is not the film’s harsh and uncompromising realism significant manifestation of his independent spirit and which makes it outstanding, but its approach to Japan’s non-conformism. Kobayashi spent the final months of the imperialist policy. As film critic Setogawa Sōta pointed war interred in a POW camp in Okinawa, at that time out, it “was the first Japanese film that frankly depicted under American control. ‘Japanese devils’ in China in great detail.”3 Kobayashi Upon his release from the camp in 1946, he dared to criticise openly Japanese militarism and to show became an assistant to , one of the the brutality of the Japanese occupation policy in China. leading directors of the period – together with Yazuro Ozu, His humanist message is close to Kurosawa’s, but his and – and at that time political attitude and his interest in aspects that concern under contract at Shōchiku. His first films are inspired by Japanese society are more clearly expressed than in the the studio’s style, which was renowned for its shomin- work of most of his contemporaries. Not unlike Kurosawa, geki: contemporary stories and domestic dramas. The he was a risk-taking filmmaker who was interested in sentimental style of these productions is resonant in challenging formal aspects and rejected compromise, an Kobayashi’s early films, Kinoshita clearly being a major attitude which made his position more and more insecure influence.4 Kobayashi’s mentor Kinoshita was the in the 1970s when Japanese film industry experienced a scriptwriter of his first film, the 45-minute-long Musuko period of drought. His last film – Shokutaku no nai no seishun (’ Youth, 1952), and of his first feature ie (Family Without a Dinner Table aka The Empty Table) film Magokoro (Sincere Hearts, 1953). Both are social – was released in 1985, twelve years before his death. melodramas close to the style of the studio and deal with However, his anti-violence stance and his personal style young people’s desires and fears within a coming-of-age context. Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—5

In 1953, Kobayashi directed a far more personal microcosm in which the economic struggle of the (young) film on a topic that was unusual for Shōchiku. Kabe atsuki protagonists and their disregard for society are depicted. heya (The Thick-Walled Room) is an early example of his Kobayashi’s love lifelong preoccupation with the war and his deep interest story Izumi (Fountainhead aka The Spring, 1956), in politics and society. This landmark film is one of the however, begins to address political issues such as real- first Japanese films to deal with the war heritage, raising estate speculation and corruption more overtly. This is also questions of responsibility for atrocities committed by the true for Anata kaimasu, (I’ll Buy You, 1956) which adds to Japanese. The screenplay, by the novelist Kobo Abe, is the domestic tale a portrayal of the corrupt world of based on the secret notes professional baseball to the written down by former domestic tale. Kobayashi members of the army who were explores the machinations sentenced for war crimes. The behind the scenes of this very protagonists are low-ranking popular sport in his home soldiers, categorized as B and C country, and the film ends war criminals. The film targets with the dissolution of the not only the brutal punishment family and a murder. Filmed suffered by these men at the in a realist manner, I’ll hands of the Americans, but Buy You reveals – just as The also the fact that many of them Thick-Walled Room did were framed by their superiors before it – a penchant for who escaped punishment. Without trying to whitewash his expressionist lighting creating moments of profound protagonists, Kobayashi suggests how badly they were bleakness. treated by a system which denied all responsibility. The In Kuroi kawa (Black River, 1957) Kobayashi prison is not simply the stage on which the intimate drama offers insights into a Japan of the 1950s dominated by of Japan’s post-war society is played out: the huis clos of crime, violence, corruption and poverty. The setting is the prison is turned into a metaphorical space and a reminiscent of Maxim Gorki’s play The Lower dramatic character in its own right. The bleakness of the Depths (1902), a shack close to an American military base expressionist black-and-white photography, unusual where a human drama is enhanced by strong social camera positions, cross-fades, the subtle blending of criticism. The greedy landlady, the apolitical student and everyday situations and dream sequences revealing the the convinced communist form part of the cast of tormented spirits of the inmates are aspects that repeatedly characters who are trying to survive in post-war Tokyo. Joe shine through the realism at the film’s core. The Thick- (Tatsuya Nakadai in his first leading role) is a cynical and Walled Room was far too controversial in 1953 – just one brutal gang boss who controls the whole district. Wearing year after the end of American occupation – so was not sunglasses and exuding coolness, he apes a new masculine released until 1957. By that time, it had lost much of its type imported from the U.S., and the film clearly asks political impact. questions about the Americanisation of Japanese society. Since there was no chance that Kobayashi’s second However, the main targets are those Japanese who adopt feature film would be released straightaway, he returned to American trends only superficially. Social conformity is at the psychological drama more typical of Shōchiku. Mittsu the core of Kobayashi’s criticism, and he represents his no ai (Three Loves, 1954) and Kono hiroi sora no dokoka compatriots as mere opportunists who, after having blindly ni (Somewhere Under the Broad Sky aka Somewhere followed the rules of the military regime, are now happy to beneath the Vast Heavens, 1954) are like many other adapt to the rules of democracy, whatever the cost. The Japanese films of the 1950s in that they deal with poverty society he depicts is one that accepts a continuing and disillusionment: the disfigurement of one of the authoritarian rule, and this is the basis for corruption and protagonists in Somewhere Under the Broad Sky is a visual violence. Kobayashi condemns any idealisation of poverty, reminder of the war and the permanent mark it left on having the student Nishida (Fumio Watanabe) say: “I have post-war society. Another film, Uruwashiki chosen to live in this shanty to save 600 yen. But I don’t saigetsu (Beautiful Days aka Days of Splendour, 1955) like poverty. It makes you lose dignity.” Nishida, affirms small-town values and recalls Kinoshita’s great introduced as shy and clumsy, anticipates the rebel in success with his film of domestic life, Nijū-shi no hitomi Kobayashi’s oeuvre. Instead of being presented as a (24 Eyes, 1954). In these films, the family is the sympathetic character, he is a man of principles. Unlike the communist, he does not follow an ideology but confronts Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—6

Joe for Shizuko’s (Ineko Arima) sake, since he is in love this insubordination. In the third part, he is imprisoned in with her. Joe is the pure product of a society left to its own a Soviet labour camp, where he continues his struggle, this devices by its former rulers, the head of a male-dominated time against the corrupt system established by the other clan that lives from crime and violence. There is no justice Japanese officers. system, and so the young woman kills Joe to put an end to The trilogy is not only a confrontation with the evil he embodies. The far bigger crime, the corruption historical guilt but also the portrait of a society that that has created this misery and violence, goes unpunished. continuously suppresses the individual. Focusing on The image at the end of the film is a rainy road at night. A resistance to authority, it is a major humanist document. gloomy image in which Shizuko, a human miniature, “Human condition” is not entirely accurate as a translation vanishes into the all-enveloping of the Japanese title Ningen no darkness.5 jōken, which means the special The Human Condition is the condition under which a person is first film Kobayashi made outside human. This particular meaning is Shōchiku, and his critical depiction of revealed at the moment of the the Japanese during the war was not execution when Wang (Eijirō appreciated by the conservative studio. Tōno), one of the Chinese slave As a producer, he took enormous risks labourers, tries to convince Kaji to with this monumental work: the put an end to the cruel punishment shooting lasted 2½ years and the of innocent men. He wonders if whole production took four years. The Kaji, still hesitating, is either a screenplay is based on a popular novel murderer who pretends being a by Junpei Gomikawa deriving from humanist or a human being who personal experience but inspired in fully deserves this name. As in most equal measure by Kobayashi’s own war of his films and especially in his two experience as a pacifist in the Imperial period films Harakiri and Samurai Army. Kaji, his protagonist, could be Rebellion Kobayashi is preoccupied considered the director’s alter ego as he with the uneasy relationship is a pacifist serving in the Kwantung between the individual and society, Army. Kobayashi raises questions between personal desire and social which are uncomfortable still today: obligations. Having a strong sense of what did World War II turn the justice and dignity, Kaji (Tatsuya Japanese into? Who was responsible for the atrocities Nakadai) is aware of his inner contradictions and committed in their name? As Patrick Galbraith puts it: limitations. He arrives at the labour camp determined to “From controversial visits to Yasukuni Shrine to glaring show that better life conditions lead to better work, but he omissions in high-school textbooks, conservative Japanese discovers how much he himself is part of an unjust system. continue to fan the flames of their stained relationship His rebellion is paralleled by a never-ending struggle for with China by dismissing and denying many wartime integrity that shows where there are no heroes. In the end, atrocities, but the truth was laid bare 50 years ago in he is forced to face evil, and he kills the sadistic Kirihara Kobayashi’s films.”6 Kobayashi breaks with taboos by (Nobuo Kaneko). Without becoming a figure for heroic showing comfort women and depicting the inhumane identification, Kaji represents a symbol of hope in a world treatment of Chinese civilians in Japanese labour camps. of opportunism and corruption. He prevents the Soviet One of the most brutal moments is the discovery of the tribunal and the Japanese officers from maltreating the near-starving prisoners in the cattle wagons: hundreds of lower-ranking prisoners. men, their faces and bodies marked by hunger and Kobayashi defends bourgeois ideals in his exhaustion, run away into the bare Manchurian landscape, representation of Kaji’s love for Michiko (Michiyo desperately trying to find food and water. Another crucial Aratama): his protagonist’s last words before dying in the moment is the arbitrary execution of six of the prisoners by cold are addressed to his wife. However, the individual is the Japanese military police. This long sequence reveals the always seen in a broader social context that includes desire of the prisoners to resist and Kaji’s own fundamental questions concerning an individual’s place in contradictory feelings, oscillating between fear and society. The human figure framed through a telescope lens determination. He stops the execution after the third man and thus turned into a miniature suggests the individual’s has been beheaded but is drafted into the army because of place in the world. Kaji and Michiko, Kaji and the soldiers, Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—7 or Shizuko in Black River appear in the emptiness of a Noh drama. The dialogue, written in the archaic style of wide landscape. In The Human Condition, Kaji has to public storytelling, is another device that Kobayashi uses to face snow, wind, heat, dust, hunger and torture. At the oppose realist conventions. The poetic imagery is end, his body is an unrecognizable shape under the snow. heightened by sound and music: Torū Takemtisu’s score includes songs from Japanese folklore and atonal Biwa Karami-ai (Bitter Love aka Inheritance, 1962) sounds. could be considered a transitional work about a man trying Expressionist lighting contributes to a sense of to set his house in order as death approaches. This family fragmentation, creating gloomy corners which immediately story that contains some whodunnit elements examines question the apparent visual equilibrium. Motome’s (Akira social conditions and human behaviour, creating a grim Ishihama) extremely painful death is presented in a series portrait of a society dominated by greed and corruption. of fast cuts which are in stark contrast with the slow The jazzy score by Torū Takemitsu is the composer’s first ceremonial pace of other shots. The oblique position of the collaboration with Kobayashi.7 camera destroys the concept of linearity presented in the Realism dominates The Human Condition and architecture. It creates a disturbing moment in which the Kobayashi’s films of the 1950s, realism enhanced and pain and the fear the young man experiences becomes even overcome by subtle camera movements and sophisticated more palpable. The ideal of harmony is revealed as a means lighting devices. Harakiri, to mask the truth – underneath Kwaidan and Samurai the apparent cleanliness, filth and Rebellion, all set in the past, violence are only too obvious. reveal Kobayashi’s growing The frantic sounds of the Biwa interest in Japanese art forms accompanying Motome’s and concepts. He first agonising death create strong discovered this dramatic discordances which, together potential while working with the visual strategies, on Harakiri. “I was keenly challenge the idea of beauty in attracted to the stylized death and emphasise the cruelty beauty of our traditional of the ritual of self- forms,” he stated. “At the same time, since I felt I had disembowelment. come to the end of pursuing realism in film, this new Kobayashi draws attention to the ambiguity mode of expression delighted me.”8 Harakiri is an intimate within the concept of bushido (the way of the warrior) at character study filmed in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio (The the centre of samurai society. The inhumane treatment of Human Condition had been filmed in 2.35:1), and an the young Motome, forced to commit suicide with his impressive representation of oppressive hierarchical bamboo blades, is the consequence of codes of behaviour structures. The script – adapted from a novel by Yasuhiko that are accepted without being questioned. The samurai Takiguchi – was written by Shinobu Hashimoto, the ancestor’s empty suit of armour shown in a succession of scriptwriter of Kurosawa’s Rashomon(1950) and Seven shots at the beginning and at the end of the film becomes a Samurai (1954). Hanshiro Tsugumo (again played by symbol of meaningless traditions stubbornly defended by Nakadai) is a ronin,9 a figure who often serves as a tool to the samurai (as the representatives of a hierarchically-based challenge authority and to criticise blind obedience. society). The Iyi family accept Motome’s horrifying death Both Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion transcend the codes and kill his father-in-law Hanshiro simply in order to save of the jidai-geki (period film) and chambara (swordfight their own reputation. Hanshiro questions this behaviour: film) in order to explore the role of Japan’s feudal heritage “The samurai is a human being too. There are moments in in the construction of the collective psyche of the Japanese which human sentiment is what is most important.” people in the 20th century. Kobayashi’s focus on the individual must be In Harakiri, Kwaidan and Samurai Rebellion, understood in a broader context. Hanshiro is the veteran of there are long travelling shots in the barely furnished the war period of the late 16th century and he refers to rooms revealing the harmony inherent in symmetrical other historical events such as the dissolution of clans by compositions. Kobayashi’s favourite angle – from above – the ruling shogun, which led to homeless and transforms the courtyard of the Iyi residence into the stage penniless ronin invading the country. “The rich,” he says of a Noh play, another traditional art form Kobayashi “have no idea of misery.” The recourse to the jidai- takes inspiration from. The focus on symmetry and geki and the past does little to mask the criticism of asymmetry is reminiscent of the formal use of grouping in structures that are militarist and determined by economic Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—8 policy as represented in contemporary Japan by interiors symbolises oppressive sterility and dullness. The the keiretsu (the informal business groups controlling social constraints are a burden which has turned Isaburo Japan’s economy in the second half of the 20th century) into a prematurely aged man. However, the linearity of the and the still valid rigid concepts of loyalty and obedience. architecture and tradition disappears when the protagonist Kobayashi condemns the Japanese militarist tradition of – preparing his house for the battle – crosses bamboo rods the past and the rigid hierarchies still observed in present- at the openings, providing a counterbalance to the day Japan through the historical prism of feudal Japan. symmetrical concept. Isaburo has regained strength and Social concerns are less overtly present in his first confidence. The change undergone by the protagonist is colour film Kwaidan, inspired by subtly reflected by his mask and four traditional ghost stories costume and by the actor’s sense retold by the Irish-Greek- of presence and outstanding American journalist Lafcadio performance. Hearn (1850-1904). Kobayashi The conflict captures the beauty of old Japan between giri (feudal authority) while at the same time extending and ninjo (human feeling) has the limits set by non-realist film- been part of the samurai film making. According to Japanese since the silent era.13 Kobayashi artistic concepts, illusion is not makes use of this contrast in the hidden. The sumptuous settings, development of his central created entirely on a sound stage, character, Isaburo, from an allow a great degree of stylisation, obedient but lucid servant (the including a tribute to surrealism. very meaning of the term Painted backgrounds, the startling use of sound and music “samurai”) to an independent fighter for justice. Donald by Takemitsu and Kabuki together with Noh-influenced Richie called the film “a relentless attack on the feudal staging also contribute to this outstanding exploration of traditions inherent in Japanese society”14, and topics such form. In the second story “The Woman of the Snow” as social hierarchy and history are approached in a complex especially, the painted décor is reminiscent of a theatre manner within the framework of a domestic drama in setting. Takemitsu’s innovative score contributes to a which Isaburo is not the only one to rebel. The Japanese constant atmosphere of terror in which ordinary title could be roughly translated as “An Order of the phenomena such as the cracking of wood are transformed Emperor (or a high-ranking person): The Sad End of the into scary, alien sounds. Kwaidan states strong ethical Bestowed Wife”. Lady Ichi (Yōko Tsukasa), the main positions but at the same time contains portrayals of female figure, refuses to accept the traditional woman’s society as well as references to recent history, mainly role as object and becomes even more worthy of through atomic bomb imagery.10 Kobayashi invested all his admiration than the men. Her resistance is a radical gesture savings in the film, but despite much critical acclaim at the against the rules imposed by the ruling elite and within a Cannes Film Festival, it was not a commercial success.11 male-dominated world. The choice of title indicates that Samurai Rebellion is another film in which the film is not a conventional chambara and underlines Kobayashi makes use of jidai-geki elements as a tool for Toho’s wish to target a wider audience. The importance social criticism. The setting is a provincial court in 1727, a given to the domestic was also a strategy to distance the hundred years after Harakiri. It stars Toshirō Mifune, film from the rival studio Shōchiku, which had produced whose company produced the film together with Toho. the successful Harakiri. Most of the shooting took place in Mifune’s brand new Kobayashi considered his next film, the adaptation sound stage in Setagaya.12 of Shusako Endo’s novel Nihon no seishun(The Youth As in Harakiri, there are some frantic battle scenes of Japan aka Hymn to a Tired Man, 1968), as a sequel combining realism with stylish choreography. The duel to The Human Condition. The central character is a man between Isaburo (Mifune) and Tatewaki (Nakadai) is a (Makoto Fujita) who, haunted by the memory of the war, precisely measured but extremely intense exchange of confronts a society which still denies its past. Unlike his blows. Aesthetics and space become signifiers in their own son who is eager to join the Japanese Self-Defense Forces right. Kobayashi used the precepts of Japanese architecture and does not care at all about the past, the father faces up to create a metaphorical space reflecting social norms to the spectre of history: “When we were in the army, this weighing down on the characters and also the transgression is what we did.” Torn between social responsibility as a of these social norms. The sobriety and symmetry of husband and father and personal desires, he disappears at Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—9 the end of the film, having found a solution to his Tōkyō Saiban, (The Tokyo Trial, 1983) was an dilemma. important documentary on the twenty-eight war criminals In 1969, Kobayashi, Akira Kurosawa, Kon sentenced at the Military Tribunal for the Far East, and an Ichikawa and Keisuke Kinoshita formed the artist independent production. The fact that Kobayashi added to collective Yonki no kai (which could be translated by the archive material of the trials and the Great Pacific War “committee of four knights” or “committee of four footage of the crimes that the countries presiding over the musketeers”) with the aim of rescuing Japanese cinema in court had committed in their colonies in Africa and its time of difficulty.15However, the only film they Southeast Asia during the three years of the trial and the produced – Kurosawa’s Dodes’ka-den (1970) – was a Vietnam War was a source of irritation and a probable commercial failure, after which the collective disbanded. reason for its rejection by many American and European Inochi bō ni critics. Kobayashi’s critical furō (Inn of Evil, 1971), attitude stems from his political another jidai-geki, was convictions as a communist and adapted by Nakadai’s wife anti-imperialist, and he shows Tomoe Ryū from a novel by clearly the changing ideological Shugorō Yamamoto. The positions of the former allies – Japanese title could be Americans and Russians – translated as “We give our immediately after the war. His lives for nothing” – an idea film, far from being at the core of this tale of nationalistic, is a courageous altruism where a group of statement against violence and thieves and murderers give oppression. their lives to save a young couple. Evil is represented not Family Without a Dinner Table deals with the by these outcasts, who are “crippled humans”, but by the conflict between individual needs and social requirements ruling class, the rich, and corrupt police: references to in a contemporary setting: a father (played by Nakadai) contemporary Japan are clear. The expressionist lighting takes the side of his son, who has been arrested for for the nightmarish chase in the swamp at the end of the terrorism. The uncompromising attitude of the father, film turns the human body into a mere silhouette while unusual in the system he lives in, results in the breakdown the go-yo lanterns, which seem to float in the darkness, of the family. The film deals with the inner conflict of the create a haunting background. middle-aged protagonist and his refusal to take Despite box-office successes, the collaboration responsibility for his son’s actions. He is, however, fully between Kobayashi and Toho did not last long. However, aware of his own limitations as father and husband (his it is not sure who decided to put an end to it – the studio wife committed suicide). The film ends with a glimpse of bosses or the director himself.16 Kobayashi, disliked hope when he meets his grandson for the first time. The television, but directed a series in the 1970s on condition beautiful landscape of Hokkaido shot under a blue sky is that he could use some of the material for a feature film he the appropriate setting for a new beginning. It is in the was planning. Kaseki (Fossils, 1975) was about a successful grassland and hills of the northern island that the architect () diagnosed as having cancer, and townsman comes to peace with himself. As if his career adds a dimension of fantasy to its existentialist discourse by comes full circle: the filmmaker returns in this last introducing a female character (Keiko Kishi) who is the sequence of his last film to his home region which inspired embodiment of death. The protagonist starts questioning him so much. his life, which has been dominated by work. When he Like Kaji, like Hanshiro, and like the protagonist learns that his disease can be cured, he retires to the of Family Without A Dinner Table, Kobayashi stuck to his mountains – Kobayashi’s home ground – to find out what principles and resisted entrenched power – as both a could be more important than fame and pursuing a career. member of the Japanese Imperial Army and as a After this he made Moeru aki (Glowing filmmaker. His films were concerned with the struggle of Autumn aka Blazing Art, 1978), a Japanese-Iranian co- the individual against corruption and conformism, and production, is a film about a woman (Kyōko Maya) in love reflected his anti-authoritarian views. The Human with carpets who, at the end, travels to Iran. This film was Condition, Harakiri, Samurai Rebellion and Inn of a huge commercial failure. However, Kobayashi continued Evil insist that responsibility lies within the hierarchical fighting for his personal projects, giving little attention to system, one that in both the past as in the present, is economic risks and political controversies. integral to the Japanese way of life. The recourse to Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—10 historical settings suggests that these views are controversial which had fallen dormant during the war and occupation in modern Japan: in Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion, years, filmmakers seized the opportunity to challenge those Kobayashi addresses the very issue of history and the role institutions that remained wedded to the nation’s feudal of the individual. The ronin Hanshiro is erased from the past. Of this generation of directors, none was as history books, but his ancestor’s suit of armour has been passionate as Kobayashi. Every one of his films, from The repaired and the blood which covered the walls has been Thick-Walled Room (1953) to the feature-length washed away as if his struggle for life and his violent death documentary Tokyo Trial (1983) to The Empty in the Iye residence had never taken place. Ichi’s and Table(1985), is marked by a defiance of tradition and Isaburo’s resistance are crucial events that will not be authority, whether feudal or contemporary. Kobayashi recorded in official histories. The rebellious actions of found the present to be no more immune to the violation Hanshiro and Isaburo, both ending in death, reveal the of personal freedoms than the pre- past, under official futility of individual rebellion. Kobayashi’s worldview is feudalism, had been. “In any era, I am critical of ultimately pessimistic: the dissident, even if morally the authoritarian power,” the filmmaker told me when I victor, cannot change the world. Yet we can observe him interviewed him in Tokyo, during the summer of 1972. and his fight for justice. There is a glimpse of hope “In The Human Condition [1959–61], it took the form of in Samurai Rebellion when the wet nurse, having militaristic power; in Harakiri, it was feudalism. They pose witnessed Isaburo’s last desperate fight, saves the little girl. the same moral conflict in terms of the struggle of the This woman might spread the story of love and rebellion, individual against society.” and Ichi and Isaburo may perhaps not be forgotten. Like other directors of this period—notably Akira Kobayashi’s chambara-inspired films are not concerned Kurosawa—Kobayashi often expressed his political with the question of honour and the idea of how to die a dissidence via the jidai-geki, or period film, in which the beautiful death but with the essential question of how to historical past becomes a surrogate for modern Japan. In live as a human being. Kobayashi’s hands, the jidai-geki exposed the historical If only for the key moment in which the roots of contemporary injustice. (Japanese audiences were filmmaker shows a man who leaves well-trodden paths and well schooled in history and could be counted on to becomes a human being in his own right, it is worth connect the critique of the past with abuses in the coming back again and again to Kobayashi’s work. When present.) Harakiri, made in 1962, was, in Kobayashi’s Isaburo leaves the stone-paved path in the courtyard of his career, the apex of this practice. In the film’s house, thereby endorsing his full support of his daughter- condemnation of the Iyi clan, Kobayashi rejects the notion in-law, his zori leave footprints in the carefully-raked sand. of individual submission to the group. He condemns, At this moment, he transgresses the visible as well as the simultaneously, the hierarchical structures that pervaded invisible boundaries which keep him prisoner of the rigid Japanese political and social life in the 1950s and 1960s, code that Kobayashi never tired of questioning. especially the zaibatsus, the giant corporations that recapitulated feudalism. Born in Hokkaido on February 14, 1916, and educated at the prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo, Kobayashi joined the Ofuna studio in 1941, as an assistant director. Eight months later, he was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army. There, he resolutely rejected the opportunity to become an officer, insisting upon remaining at the rank of private. To suffer the misfortunes of the ordinary recruit at the hands of the military clique, to place himself in harm’s way without the prerogatives of the officer class—the class that had led Japan into the Pacific War—was Kobayashi’s means of protesting against the war itself. That war, Kobayashi has said simply, was “the culmination of human evil.” Joan Mellen: “Harakiri: Kobayashi and History” After the war, Kobayashi returned to Shochiku (Criterion) Ofuna, where he assisted the great director Keisuke Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi came of age Kinoshita before graduating to directing in the early 1950s. in the postwar moment, a time when filmmakers were at His antiauthoritarian tendencies were immediately the vanguard of dissident expression in that country. apparent in his work, inevitably provoking studio Drawing upon a rich history of protest in Japanese cinema, Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—11 censorship. His first major film, The Thick-Walled Room, Soul of Japan, is to be chastised, even if the only recourse was shelved by Shochiku Ofuna for four years, as a result against injustice open to the samurai in Harakiri, after of its controversial suggestion that those responsible for failing to appeal to the conscience of the Iyi clan elder, is to Japanese wartime atrocities were not the minor, or B and shed his own blood. C, war criminals but those at the top. Kobayashi had been Kobayashi discovers irony in the finiteness of the indignant that, at the end of the war, soldiers and low- Tokugawa period. The feudal daimyo behave as if their ranking officers were often punished cruelly, while many of power will last forever, but audiences are able to penetrate those directly responsible for the crimes escaped censure. their hubris through their own awareness that the It is surprising that a director like Kobayashi Tokugawas will be defeated and that official feudalism will would ultimately flourish at Shochiku Ofuna, which was fall with the restoration of the , in 1868. then specializing in sentimental domestic dramas of This irony is reinforced when Tsugumo tears apart the everyday life. Even the great armored figure, with its white directors working at the studio, wig, that stands for the clan’s Yasujiro Ozu and Kinoshita, fit heritage. When it is later the studio model. Ozu’s films resurrected and reseated in its may dramatize social change— place of honor, Kobayashi none more than his masterpiece exposes the fragility and —but his transience of all authoritarian characters ultimately accept power. that they are powerless to alter This perspective fits their circumstances. In Kobayashi’s subtle critique of contrast, Kobayashi’s characters contemporary society as well. risk their very existence by Kobayashi suggests that, just as coming into conflict with the forces of injustice. Indeed, the Tokugawas, in their arrogance, were shortly to be the individual in his films best expresses himself when he defeated by upstart, dissident clans loyal to the emperor— risks everything, taking a stand against corruption, and as militarists during World War?II had been hypocrisy, and evil. defeated—those wielding feudal power in the present Harakiri opens in 1630, only three decades into might well find their authority coming to an end. the more than 250-year reign of the Tokugawa shogunate. Kobayashi’s rebellious sensibility found its parallel The Tokugawa consolidation of power, following its in the actor he discovered, Nakadai, star of Harakiri and victory in a civil war, has resulted in the destruction of Kobayashi’s other masterpiece, The Human Condition (and many clans, depriving feudal daimyo of their fiefdoms and later of Kurosawa’s High and Low and Ran). An actor of converting their samurai into ronin, condemned to wander the modern Shingeki, or New Theater, Nakadai embodied the countryside masterless, in search of means of survival. postwar individualism and youth culture—in his clear Still armed with two swords—representing their soul, enunciation and strong, deep speaking voice and in his according to the code of Bushido—the former samurai are expressive body movements, facial mobility, and feared and mistrusted. willingness to convey deeply felt emotions, rather than Safely under the protection of their Tokugawa repressing them on behalf of an outworn notion of samurai ally, the Iyi clan are contemptuous of the suffering ronin dignity. who come to their door requesting that they be permitted Nakadai portrays the distinguished Tsugumo as, to perform hara-kiri (ritual suicide), in the hope that they in part, an ordinary man: a grieving widower, kind father, might instead be hired on. When Motome Chijiiwa (Akira and doting grandfather. Kobayashi contrasts these images Ishihama) presents himself before the Iyi clan for this of the family man with the fierce, upstanding traits purpose, they choose to preside over his death rather than Tsugumo possesses as a samurai. Yet it is as a loving father offer assistance. It is his father-in-law, the samurai that Nakadai is particularly moving. He refuses to allow his Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai), who, in shaming daughter to be adopted by a clan in which she might the Iyi clan before their retainers and avenging Chijiiwa’s become a concubine; he will not sacrifice her to serve his death, expresses Kobayashi’s view that there are ideas own fortune, even when their economic situation is dire. worth dying for. Tsugumo’s bold defiance of feudal This fierce individualism serves Kobayashi’s dissidence. In authority has a precedent in Bushido itself: the samurai the scene where Nakadai examines the bamboo sword that who sacrifices his conscience to “the capricious will . . . or his son-in-law was forced to use to end his life, he weeps, fancy of a sovereign,” Inazo Nitobe writes in Bushido: The “The stupid thing was too dear to me?.?.?. and I clung to Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—12 it!” revealing a range worthy of Marlon Brando. he lures the powerful leader into a situation where sheer Like many Japanese novelists and filmmakers, naked logic leaves him humiliated before his retainers. Kobayashi depicts social themes through allegory; he is an The time is 1630. Unemployed samurai, called expressionist rather than a realist. In Harakiri, the stark ronin, wander the land. There is peace in Japan, and that contrasts of black and white—for example, Tsugumo’s leads to their unemployment. Their hearts, minds and black kimono against the white-sheeted platform on which swords have been pledged to their masters, and now they he tells his story—reflect the intransigence of the Iyi clan, are cast adrift, unable to feed and shelter their families. It upon whose mercy Chijiiwa throws himself unsuccessfully. would be much the same with a corporation today, when a Kobayashi’s extensive use of the wide screen signifies the loyal employee with long tenure is "downsized." Loyalty seeming endlessness, the horizontality, of feudal power. runs only from the bottom up. The setting may be the feudal past, but Kobayashi At the gate of the official mansion of Lord Iyi, a undermines its authority by juxtaposing rigid, hidebound shabby ronin named Tsugumo Hanshiro applies for an politics with a panoply of modern film techniques, from audience with the clan elder, Saito Kayegu (Rentaro zooms to fast pans to canted frames to rapid elliptical Mikuni). He has been set loose by Lord Geishu and has no cutting to gruesome realism. With these devices, which so job. He requests permission to kill himself in the clan's obviously defy the stolid rituals of the past, Kobayashi forecourt. The ritual act is known as harakiri, or seppuku expresses his belief that society need not be destructive of (which is the film's title in Japanese). It involves using a the needs of individuals, and that authoritarian power, short blade for self-disembowelment. After the blade however cruel and seemingly permanent, may in fact be plunges in and slices from left to right, a designated master vulnerable to change. swordsman stands by to decapitate the samurai with one Harakiri won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in powerful stroke. 1963. Kobayashi’s mentor, Kinoshita, pronounced the film Tsugumo desires to kill himself because of the a masterpiece, among the five greatest Japanese films of all disgrace of being an jobless samurai. Saito tells him a story time. Kobayashi would continue working for another two designed to discourage this. In the district there have been decades, ultimately breaking out of the studio system in many appeals like this, and in some cases the desperate the late 1960s and forming the independent Yonki-no-Kai, had their lives spared and were given work by the or the Club of the Four Knights, with Kinoshita, clan they appealed to. They didn't really want to commit Kurosawa, and . Harakiri, though, would harakiri at all. However, Saito says, many clans have wised remain the most vibrant expression of his belief that life is up to this tactic. He tells a story of Chijiwa Motome not worth living unless injustice is confronted with (Akira Ishihama), another cast-off from Lord Geishu. He unrelenting force and single-minded purpose. turned up not long ago here in this very forecourt, he says, asking the same permission. Saito granted it--but only if he performed the ritual immediately. Motome gave his word as a samurai that he would indeed kill himself, but asked permission to first pay a short personal visit. Saito saw this as a delaying tactic, and commanded Motome to disembowel himself then and there. This was not easy, because Motome had pawned his short sword, and had a cheap bamboo replacement. As a man of honor, he fell on this blunt blade and caused great damage and pain before being decapitated. So you see, Saito tells Tsugumo, you had better be sincere. "I assure you I'm quite sincere," Tsugumo says, : “Harakiri” "but first I request your permission to tell a story"--one Samurai films, like westerns, need not be familiar that will be heard by Saito and the retainers of the genre stories. They can expand to contain stories of ethical household, who are seated solemnly around the edges of challenges and human tragedy. "Harakiri," one of the best the courtyard. of them, is about an older wandering samurai who takes "Harakiri" was released in 1962, the work his time to create an unanswerable dilemma for the elder of of Masaki Kobayashi (1916-1996), best known for a powerful clan. By playing strictly within the rules of "Kwaidan" (1965), an assembly of ghost stories that is Bushido Code which governs the conduct of all samurai, among films I've seen. He also made the nine-hour epic "The Human Condition" (1959-1961) Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—13 which was critical of the way the Bushido Code permeated symbols of their lack of inner strength. This provides one Japanese life and helped create the state of mind which led of the great dramatic moments of all samurai films. to World War II. And he made "Samurai Rebellion" It's important how the director Kobayashi's own (1967), about a man who refuses to offer his wife to a life reflects Tsugumo's ideals. He was a lifelong pacifist, superior. but his way of acting on his beliefs was not to avoid His recurring theme, seen clearly in "Harakiri," is military service but to refuse promotion to the officer class, that fanatic adherence to codes of honor, by granting them so that he would take his chances along with other a value greater than life itself, sets up a situation where conscripts. humanist values are forbidden. The samurai class This black and white film is elegantly composed eventually created the Japanese militarist class, whose and photographed to reflect the values it contains. The members were so indoctrinated with worship of their camera often takes the POV of Saito, standing at the top of superiors that the deaths of kamikaze pilots and the the stairs leading from the courtyard to the official slaughter of soldiers in hopeless charges under fire were residence, looking down from authority to Tsugumo the seen, not as military acts, but as a seeking for honorable lowly petitioner. Then it will take a reverse POV of death. The modern Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima was Tsugumo looking up to the man with the power. Angular famously so devoted to the code that he saw its decay as shots incorporate the onlookers, who sit impassive and the shame of Japan, and himself committed seppuku in listen as their leader and the powerless ronin speak. Then, 1970 after leading his small private army in an ill-advised during a swordplay scene, a hand-held camera is used to uprising to restore the honor of the Emperor. The suggest the breaking down of tarditional patterns It would American writer-director Paul Schrader told his story in take men with hearts of stone to resist being moved by "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters" (1985). Tsugumo's story, but these men have been born and bred Opening in a way similar to "Rashomon," in to have such hearts. which a man arrives at a gate and begins telling one of four The fist image in the film will raise questions in versions of the same story, Kobayashi makes a film where the minds of viewers. We are looking at the symbol of the there is only one correct version of the story, but its Iyi clan, the repository of its traditions and ancestors--an meaning depends entirely on whose point of view you empty suit of armor. Eventually this symbol will be take. Who is right? Saito, who is determined not to have disgraced and exposed as the hollow man it is. And when the charity of the Iyi clan exploited, or Tsugumo, who is we listen to the heartless reasoning of Saito, it is easy to determined that Saito and his household will hear the draw parallels with more recent political debates where whole story of Motome which led up to his falling on his rigid economic theories of both left and right are cited as pathetic bamboo sword. good reason to disregard human suffering. It would be wrong for me to reveal the details of the story Tsugumo tells. What I can say is that it is heartbreaking. He explains that Motome was not a man trying to avoid death by the excuse of asking for a delay. He was a man whose actual honor humbles Saito and other authoritarian bureaucrats. Sometimes it takes more courage to do the right thing than to do the traditional thing. Following the Bushido Code frees its adherents from the need to arrive at their own moral conclusions. "Harakiri" is a film reflecting situational ethics, in which the better you know a man the more deeply you understand his motives. The telling of the story involves a feeling of ritual. Three times Tsugumo is given the privilege of choosing the master swordsman who will behead him. Three times a “Samauri cinema” (Wikipedia) messenger to sent to fetch the man. Three times the Chanbara (チャンバラ), also commonly spelled messenger returns alone, with the news that the chosen "chambara", meaning "sword fighting" movies,[1] denotes man is feeling too ill today to survive. Tsugumo, who is the Japanese film genre called samurai cinema in English obviously familiar with the retainers of the Iyi clan, doesn't and is roughly equivalent to seem very surprised. He will eventually explain the absence western cowboy and swashbuckler films. Chanbara is a of the "sick" men by producing in the courtyard dramatic sub-category of , which equates to period drama. Jidaigeki may refer to a story set in a historical Kobayashi—HARAKIRI—14 period, though not necessarily dealing with a samurai Historically, the genre is usually set during character or depicting swordplay. the Tokugawa era (1600–1868). The samurai film hence While earlier samurai period pieces were more often focuses on the end of an entire way of life for the dramatic rather than action-based, samurai samurai: many of the films deal with masterless rōnin, or moviesproduced post World War II have become more samurai dealing with changes to their status resulting from action-based, with darker and more violent characters. Post a changing society. war samurai epics tended to portray psychologically or Samurai films were constantly made into the early physically scarred warriors.[2] Akira Kurosawa stylized and 1970s, but by then, overexposure on television, the aging exaggerated death and violence in samurai epics. His of the big stars of the genre, and the continued decline of samurai, and many others portrayed in film, were solitary the mainstream Japanese film industry put a halt to most figures, more often concerned with concealing their martial of the production of this genre.[3] abilities, rather than showing them off.[2]

COMING UP IN THE FALL 2019 BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS (SERIES 39) Oct 15 Nicholas Roeg Don’t Look Now 1973 Oct 22 Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles 1974 Oct 29 Larisa Shepitko The Ascent 1977 Nov 5 Louis Malle Au revoir les enfants 1987 Nov 12 Charles Burnett To Sleep With Anger 1990 Nov 19 Steve James, Frederick Marks & Peter Gilbert Hoop Dreams 1994 Nov 26 Alfonso Cuarón Roma 2018 Dec 3 Baz Luhrmann Moulin Rouge 2001

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