darthkarl-56023 Pros:It's great at building tension. The story is gripping and interesting. Exciting action. Fantastic acting. I dont know a lot about 17th century Japan But i Can Imagine that it's very authentic either way it did a great job getting me into the world. Every camera move feels unique and purposeful. The way it sometimes doesnt show what we want to see just to let our imagination go wild. The score is great. Interesting characters that you care about and either want to see succeed or die. It's very emotional at times. Never boring. Really good cinematography. It has a very unique and interesting style.Cons: I dont really have any complaints about the movieOverall: This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's stylistic way of telling a already interesting story works extremly well.10/10

Osmosis Iron Definitely the best samurai flick that was not done by Kurosawa! In fact it actually surpasses many of his masterpieces! The brilliant cinematography and intense swordplay is complimented by an intricate and well told story that stays with you.

Ricc0 Tsugumo Hanshiro, a Samurai with no lord (ronin), goes to the estate of Li clan to commit Harakiri (Japanese ritual suicide), yet a senior counselor there tells him a story about the fate of a younger ronin that came to the clan holding the same request. The story that was intended to scare away Hanshiro only carried him to tell a story of his own and so he did in the oddest fashion. And through flashbacks we learn it and the more we know the more we understand.. the more we feel.. the more we think.Harakiri (1962), that its events are set out between 1619 and 1630 of the Edo period, is a perfect study of the human mind, heart, and soul. It is also a study of the human relations and that of the society and individual..Through its characters and their contradicting personalities you will learn a lot.. Sincerity and hypocrisy, faith and appearances, love and hate, caring and indifference, courage and fear... The social structure: flaws and corruptness.. The society's symbols and traditions: their depth and when they are only a cover. And then there is history: how it happens and then how it is written. This is all one thing about Harakiri and the other aspects that make a film are just as perfect.. the cinematography, soundtrack, acting.. every single aspect.. and the duels we see reminded me of the duels in "The good, the bad, and the ugly', only that here it's with swords.Truly the film is a masterpiece.. a journey that you should undergo.

sharky_55 The first shot of Harakiri is an imposing suit of samurai armour, seated on a bench amongst cinematic coils of smoke in the air. I say seating, because despite its hollowness, it's posture is imposingly life-like, almost as if at the call of war it would come to life and march off to battle. This must be how the Ii clan see this glorious suit of armour; even in peacetime it is more than just a tool for means of driving back enemies, but a symbol for honour, strength, loyalty and absolute morality. Of course as they prosper, the peacetime has released many ronin, now master-less and without a trade or living, into the wild wandering. This is really a film for a repeat watch. On first impression, Motome's pleas seem a little self-fulfilling, because why would a samurai committed to seppuku want a two day respite if they have renounced everything and are ready to die? His actual act of seppuku too, is extremely hard to watch - Kobayashi doesn't need to show actually graphic penetration because Ishihama's agony is so anguishing to witness. And yet, there is a hint of comeuppance, because it seems phony that a samurai would carry around a fake, bamboo version of his livelihood. On a second watch, these scenes are filled with such a tragic desperation once we know the back-story. The blunt, ironic cruelty of the bamboo strikes becomes heartbreaking because he has already sold his real blades for his family - what is a samurai without his blade? We know without a doubt he would return in two days this time. Doubly so, Hanshiro weeps because he has kept his own blade, foolishly holding onto a past relic much like the witnesses around him do so. Kobayashi has maintained such a steady, tense rhythm throughout the two hours and 13 minutes. Not once is there a line of misplaced dialogue, or a glance that was not filled with the appropriate amount of venom. We see one 'extortion' attempt, and then another from Hanshiro, so of course we await some sort of twist or connection. There is no sense of contrivance when he delays the act, no sense of artificial direction behind these characters. Tatsuya Nakadai is effortless. He has the knack for transforming so seamlessly into his character and becoming every ounce of them - here it is in his blank, almost traumatised expression as he narrates; it could not be more immediately obvious that this is a man who has lost everything. And then there is the little remaining spark underneath that drives this tale of revenge (his cackles as he bemusedly wonders on the fate of three men he has already taken care of), although it seems more vital to expose the Ii clan for the facade that they uphold. The framing device of the narration of the guest book is what seals it. It simultaneously empowers and suppresses the events of the film; even as we witness the despair of Saito, having his pretense so viciously and comprehensively demolished, he quickly rewrites the history books because he has that power (there's a cruel irony to the way he orders the forced seppuku of the three disgraced warriors - the noble ritual being marred). That stirring, dramatic duel in the windswept plains, gone. That desperate, climatic battle, where we might conventionally expect a one-man massacre and a little poetic justice, gone. And even as he attempts to go out on his own terms, Hanshiro is shot by a modernised death-dealer. It recalls Kurosawa's Yojimbo, in which it was actually Nakadai who wielded the gun and brought forth the end of the age of samurai. But here, it becomes a more potent, universally symbolic end. This cruel world does not bend to sentiment. Appearances must be upheld, even sometimes in the face of moral transgression. Hanshiro smashes the suit of armour, but it is gleaming and whole again soon. But it is of course a hollow ideal. All the honour in the world could not materialise a decent man to fill its shoes.