HARAKIRI (1962)

"Who can fathom the depths of another man's heart?"

Japan 1630.  Masterless samurai Tatsuya Nakadai is way down on his luck, so he goes to the estate of a local samurai clan and requests to use their courtyard to commit seppuku.  They grant him entrance, but being suspicious of his intentions, they inform him of how there has been an increased amount of down-on-their-luck ronin going around recently claiming the desire to commit seppuku but are actually just looking for a handout.  In fact, they had one such young fellow in here not too long ago and seeing that he was being untruthful, they forced him to commit seppuku (with a bamboo sword!) even though he begged to be let go.  Tatsuya finds this story to be most interesting...

In the extras on the Criterion release, screenwriter Shinobu (THE SWORD OF DOOM, SEVEN SAMURAI) Hashimoto describes HARAKIRI as "A samurai's bitter ranting at his harakiri ceremony, that's it." and while that is true he neglects to mention that the samurai he's talking about (Tatsuya Nakadai) is one bad motherfucker!  I can't say how badass he is without ruining it for anybody unfortunate enough to have never seen HARAKIRI, but, trust me, he ain't no joke.

Exciting sword fights, massive amounts of talent both in front of and behind the camera, strong script that gives you a lot to think about even after the film is over, steady pace that keeps building the excitement, gravel that mysteriously re-sweeps itself after people walked on it, awesome lighting, believable ending.  Highly recommended.

Double-feature with 1966's THE SWORD OF DOOM.  Also, Tatsuya Nakadai and Tetsuro Tanba would face off again seven years later in GOYOKIN, but it's not nearly as exciting.

GOYOKIN (1969)

Set back in the day, Tatsuya Nakadai is a ronin who three years ago witnessed his fellow samurai clan buddies massacring a small fishing village in order to cover up a scheme concerning stolen gold bars.  Naively, he promises to not turn them in if they promise not to massacre any more villages!  Now, three years later, he not only hears that they are planning to do it again, but he meets a young woman who's family was slaughtered in the original massacre.  He sets out to stop the upcoming bloodshed by killing the fook out of everybody in his old clan.

GOYOKIN was an enjoyable enough samurai film, although I can't see myself ever wanting to watch it again.  Tatsuya Nakadai was fine, as were the supporting characters, but at 124 minutes the story just drug on for too long and the final showdown was less than spectacular.

A few entertaining action scenes, Ruriko Asaoka looking absolutely gorgeous, some nice photography, authentic looking sets and one of the most unexplained escapes in movie history: master samurai Tatsuya has been captured (by throwing a net on him...really?!) and then taken into the snow-covered forest, tied up with a ton of ropes around his arms/torso and hung from a tree.  Next the evil samurai inexplicably throws a small knife at him and it sticks in the rope above Tatsuya's head.  He then leaves.  So now Tatsuya begins wiggling around and this somehow makes the rope snap and drops him up to his shoulders(!!!) in a snow packed hole.  Snow is falling in on his head and Tatsuya pulls the rope and catches the little dart/knife thing in his mouth.  Next scene...Tatsuya is jumping out of a tree onto a bad guy!  What the Hell just happened??  He was buried up to his shoulders in snow while being completely bound with ropes and his only salvation was a little dart in his mouth!

Worth a watch for samurai movie fans.