Takashi Miike's Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai was greeted to middling response when it screened at last year's Cannes, with many commenting on the extraneous use of 3D, and the aimlessness of the story. Still, this is a Miike film, and the prolific director behind 13 Assassins and Ichi the Killer remains popular. With the film set to open here on July 20th, a trailer has been released and it shows Miike may be focusing more on craftsmanship than bombastic action.
A reimagining of Masaki Kobayashi's 1962 classic, Harakiri, the film follows a grief stricken, honorable samurai named Hanshiro, who seeks to commit ritual suicide in front the power lord Kageyu. Suspicious of his motives, Kageyu recounts a similar plea from a young ronin named Motome, and the tragic end he met. Undeterred, Hanshiro recounts his own story, with Kageyu not realizing that the wheels have been set in motion for a vengeful showdown to take place against his house.
Based on what we've seen, Miike seems to be going more for dramatic tension than lots of blood and sword samurai thrills. That will no doubt disappoint fans of the director's more violent films, but Miike is anything if not a chameleon, and has shown the ability to do many different genres efficiently. It's still a little weird to see how reserved this movie is in light of just recently watched Miike's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney(review here) which is off the wall bonkers in just about every way.
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai will hit theaters here on July 20th. Check out the trailer below...
