- How did this film help you understand Japanese / samurai culture better? What questions did it raise about the culture?
- Which do you like better, Seven Samurai or this film? Why?
- What have you learned about Japanese culture in this class which helped you appreciate this film more?
Or, you might do some research and report on it. Here are some cultural things you might research:
- What is harakiri? How does understanding harakiri help you appreciate this film more?
- The film depicts katana sword fights as a lot of waiting and only slices at key moments when you have the advantage. Is this an accurate depiction of samurai fighting styles? Explain.
Hey it's Tucker
ReplyDeleteThis movie was difficult to understand because it had many flashbacks and I kept getting lost while they explained different things. On the other hand I found this movie very interesting and enjoyed it because it went into a depth that explained what Samurais did when the battles/wars were over and how they lived while in poverty.
The action in this movie was very scarce and a bit cheesy but it did and key spots to the plot. The actors in this movie where able to keep in character and did very well when it came to their main scene. I also saw that the editing in this movie was well done because there were very little jump cuts and changed scenes really well and stuck to the basic rules very well.
The only down side to this movie was the black and white because I ry to imagine colors more than pay any attention, but other than that I really liked this movie.
This movie was super awesome, even though it was a total downer the whole time. Google says its called Seppuku in japane, the ritual suicide to redeem honor and dignity.
ReplyDeleteThe samurai are held to their code, but as the head of the other house shows, they can still stoop below their code to protect their names. Reporting the killings and suicides as death caused by an illness shows that they were more worried about keeping their name in high regards.
I don't think I could choose between Seven Samurai and this since they don't really have anything in common other than the Samurai, one is about saving a village, and the other is the depresssing story with baby death and brutal bamboo sword self stabbing.
I don't mind black and white, it's the story that is the part I'm after.
Good point that it might be unwise to compare this with Seven Samurai just because they both feature samurai when they are such different stories.
DeleteYour post got me thinking about the difference between doing things because we feel they are right or wrong vs. doing things because we care about what other people think of us. The samurai in this film follow their code not because they feel it is inherently right to do so but because they are concerned with how others see them and their house.
I guess it was cool that it helped us on seeing the other side to the samurai that we don’t usually see in samurai movies. I really enjoyed this film, I was excited to come back to class and watch it all week. It was kind of sad and depressing to watch all those people die but unlike most sad movies you didn’t really get time to get to know them so it didn’t take away from emphasis on him. Which, I don’t know if he meant for, but it was a cool idea.
ReplyDeleteI liked them both a lot, I really couldn’t pick which one I liked more, but I liked them in different ways. But that’s how I usually am about movies; I never can have a favorite movie. It’s always just a cluster of various movies I like equally as much at the time.
Well just from talking to my dad, and the films I would say I’ve learned quite a bit more then I knew. My dad used to teach me stuff about it though, but sense this class I actually have been asking him and looking stuff up. When I did research about the Japanese cherry blossoms I decided I want to get them tattooed on me. And now I think it would be cool to live there for a bit, there are a lot of places I want to travel and live at and I never really cared about japan but now I don’t think that it is such a stupid place to visit or live.
Yay for seeking to learn about another country and being motivated to live there!
Deletehey, sup.
ReplyDeleteso harakiri was super badass.
and it defiantly gave a very good idea of what the samurai culture is like. they are very honorable people and care very much about their family and their principles.
i would like to know more about the houses, like what they are and what they do. because it didn't really explain why there was this place filled with samurai.
seven samurai was way cool, but i would defiantly say that i liked this more. waaayyy more. i think that harakiri showed more emotion than seven samurai. i mean seven samurai definatly showed alot of emotion but it but there was just so many characters it was hard to get a really good idea of how exactly they were feeling. unlike harakiri.
yeah.- zak
Yeah, I also agree. I didn't understand the house full of samurai, hahaha.
DeleteYeah, I didn't get the house of samurai either. Who is going to do some research on this?
DeleteOverall, Harakiri is definitely not my favorite movie. It was slow, long, and I just cannot get a feel of Japanese samurai films. It makes me feel like such a… GIRL, that I am not interested in this genre – I love action, drama, and fighting, and maybe it’s the fact that it’s an older film, made in the 60’s, and has a different style than the films now, but I still dislike it.
ReplyDeleteThe acting was not horrible, but it felt like a performance you would see at a play/show. There would be close-up’s of Hanshiro and he would have the most intense, terrified look on his face. It reminded me of Charlie Chaplin heavily trying to convey to you that he was a Japanese samurai mime. Searching the man who played Hanshiro, it actually says that he was originally stage-trained. So ha! I was right on the dot. On a better note, I absolutely loved the woman who played Miho… her performance when she sobbed over the dead samurai was breathtaking. Her cries chilled me to the bone and it was very realistic. It made me think of how others, or myself, would cry, if someone incredibly close to them died, and was laying in her home. It made me feel teary, and that’s the only true, remarkable thing I remember about the film. The tears were also the closest thing to excited emotion that I got when watching this film, and I really hate saying this. I think eventually, I will have to give this movie another chance.
I learned that committing suicide was a very honorable thing to the Japanese – while watching Harakiri, I knew that the storyline was completely serious, but I was convinced the act of hara-kiri itself was a joke. It’s not that I am ignorant to suicide or I think it is wrong, I am very… I suppose, understanding of suicide itself, but the characters seemed to have praised and lovingly accepted the request of suicide to the main character. I researched harakiri and learned that the originiation of it came from Japanese warrior disemboweling themselves so that they wouldn’t fall into the hands of an enemy – that’s why it was considered and a more honorable deed. Eventually, hara-kiri became a privileged request when a warrior was disloyal to their emperor. Learning more about harakiri makes a lot more sense to me, and ten minutes ago I really disliked the movie, but I feel like I understand a bigger chunk of the film now, and have an ounce or two more of appreciation for it.
I really wish I would have loved this movie, but it just didn’t do it for me this time.
"It reminded me of Charlie Chaplin heavily trying to convey to you that he was a Japanese samurai mime." LOL
DeleteIt's true that you don't understand the act of harakiri then it is hard to get what the heck is going on in this film. This is a great example of when cultural understanding is absolutely essential to appreciating the story. I think that the next time I show this film in class, we will learn about the harakiri tradition before we watch it.
I liked this film a lot better than Seven Samurai because i found more interesting. I think that Harakiri showed more of the samurai life and culture compared to seven samurai only showed that they protected people and they enjoyed doing it. Harakiri shows more of their life style and how important their honor and duties are to them.
ReplyDeleteHarakiri is the spiritual ritual where a samurai commits suicide my disemboweling himself. After he makes a satisfying gash is his stomach his "second" will decapitate him. This is the only honorable way a samurai would die other than in battle. I love how dedicated they were to what they did and who they were.
The things that i've learned in this class about Japanese culture have taught me a lot. I find it interesting that almost everything they do has meaning. It's fun to look at the little things like the wind for example and piece the little things together and get this big life lesson. While watching the japanese movies i love how everyone depends on each other and works together in Seven Samurai, and in Harakiri I think that its really interesting that they went to those extremes to stick to their word and their duties. I can only imagine what the american culture would be like if we were like that, probably more peaceful in my opinion.
I love black and white films, but it would be interesting to see it in color.
Last Summer, I worked on a documentary that touched on Japanese culture. I ended up talking with a kendo master (kendo = the martial art of wielding a katana) who talked with me about how Japanese society is so ritualistic. He said that doing everything from serving tea to putting on ceremonial clothes to pulling one's sword with so many specific, ritualistic steps helps him to think more deeply about everything he does in life. It helps him to live more deeply. For example, when he participates in a Japanese tea ceremony, the ritual helps him to not just routinely give tea to someone but to concentrate on the act of service he is doing for that person and then he goes away from the experience thinking more deeply about how he can serve everyone around him as he goes about life.
DeleteBetween Seven Samurai and Harakiri, I definitely enjoyed watching Harakiri much more. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much because I absolutely loved Seven Samurai, but I was just personally much more interested in the story told in Harakiri. It was more of a personal story and made it easier to focus on what was going on, rather than there being several people to try to keep track of their stories
ReplyDeleteI actually decided to do some research on harakiri. It definitely helped me understand the film more and gave me a greater appreciation for it. It made me understand why samurai would even want to perform harakiri. When I searched harakiri, I read about the kind of things that we already knew. Which was basically that harakiri was the disembowelment of a samurai done to himself. After reading that, I found links to information about a female form suicide in the time of the samurai. Its called jigai, which is actually many forms of suicide, but includes what women would do. I read that women belonging to samurai families would also perform a suicide ritual because of dishonor, usually in the case of military defeat. They would begin by tying their knees together so that when they were found, they would still be in seated in a dignified position. They would then cut their arteries in a single stoke to have a quick death. I just thought it was interesting to find that the women of these families felt dishonor and it was so important to them that dying was a better choice.
Interesting stuff, Ryan. Thanks for doing extra research!
DeleteI liked the flashback stuff. It reminded me of Hero, the first movie we watched. Where both of them told their side of the story. I think it really added to the film.
ReplyDeleteI already knew about the suicide thing and how they'd rather take their own lives then dishonor their family. But I don't exactly get the ponytail thing, and the importance of cutting it off.
I think I liked Seven Samuri better. I just liked the characters more and the story was a little more interesting. And the Seven Samuri had more humor then this one.
Other then that, it was good.
Sir Whovian, Out!
Who is going to research, "the ponytail thing"?
DeleteI thought this film was enjoyable. It wasn't the greatest, but I'm glad I watched it. I like this kind of flashback story telling where you don't quite know all that is going on, and things are gradually revealed to you. Although I didn't really find a reason why we were watching what was going on until nearly the end of the film. Why the main character was there, telling this story. And who that guy was before he came.
ReplyDeleteI think I like Seven Samurai better than this movie. Even if at some points, Seven Samurai felt more light-hearted then Hara Kiri. Seven Samurai just felt more important. Like the events of it had more riding on it than the events in Hara Kiri. And in Seven Samurai, it felt like you had more connection with the characters.
I already knew that the act of hara kiri existed, but I didn't realize how big of a deal it was to samurai. One of the things that I thought was strange was at the end of the movie. When the main character goes on a rampage and kills 50 other samurai. The main samurai guy of the fortress says, "He performed hara kiri like he requested, and all our men died of illness." I assume that he said that out of some respect for the main character. But to me it seems that taking out 100 other guys on your way to die would look a lot more impressive in the record books. It seems like that would be enough to get you honor in the afterlife.
I am not certain but I assumed that the film was saying that this lord was not following the Samurai code. That his house was weak because he was a hypocrite. He pretended that his vessels were more honorable than they actually were. I see this as a movie about how hypocritical the samurai feudal system could be -- that it looked all nobel on the outside but was actually just a way that lords sought and maintained power and which they themselves only followed when it served their ends.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the extra background research! Good stuff! I'll give you some make-up participation points for that! I also love to see how even though you didn't particularly like the film, watching it was still a positive experience in that it helped you engage with another culture and another way of thinking and doing things.
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