I absolutely love samurai movies, and no I don’t mean weird Netflix movies about ninjas. I mean good, classic, samurai movies. Harakiri perfectly encompasses and exemplifies all traits of good samurai movies, and for that reason, I believe it’s the best samurai movie out there.

Harakiri was a type of ritualistic suicide that samurai committed in order to preserve their honor with their death. The movie takes place towards the end of the age of the samurai, in the 17th century. At this point the samurai clans are beginning to die out. A retainer from a dead clan named Motome shows up on the Li clan door asking to commit Harakiri in their courtyard, so he could die as a samurai. However, it is revealed that he actually had no intention of going through with the suicide, and that he was actually hoping for a job with the Li clan. After being found out he is forced to commit Hara-Kiri by the Li clan. Months later, and older samurai named Hanshiro (played by Tatsuya Nakadai) appears to the Li clan, and just like Motome, claims to want to commit Hara-Kiri. The plot has many twists and turns, and almost feels like a whodunnit, in that it maintains an air of mystery throughout the movie.

The acting in this movie is fantastic. In particular, Tatsuya Nakadai and Akira Ishihama as Hanshiro and Motome. Both are excellent in their roles. Ishihama in particular, as he has to act an incredibly hard scene. I’m not going to spoil it, but suffice to say it must have been just as hard to film as it is to watch. The combat in this movie is few and far between, however both the duel near the cemetery and the final battle of the movie are both incredible thanks to Nakadai’s acting, as well as this movies cinematography. In fact, the cinematography in Harakiri is perhaps one of it’s greatest assets. Some shots in this movie are downright jaw dropping. The final duel especially, virtually every shot could win an award.

There really isn’t much I can say against this movie. The only thing I can think of is that it’s a little slow in the beginning, with most action and combat occurring later in the film. However, if you’re watching a samurai movie and you can’t handle slow movies, you’re in the wrong genre.

Overall Harakiri, while not my all time personal favorite samurai, is probably in my opinion simply the best samurai movie ever made. If you can get through some of the incredibly tough-to-watch scenes, then you’ll find that you’re watching a masterpiece.