Harakiri (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Reviews

Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi had been directing films for ten years when he helmed what is undoubtedly his masterpiece Harakiri. In a riveting combination of dramatic narrative and thrilling action set pieces, Kobayashi fashions a new kind of samurai movie: not the fast-paced, no-holds-barred thrillfests that Akira Kurosawa had made so popular, but rather a thoughtful and more pessimistic look at the tradition that alternately celebrates and condemns it all at once. Even with one of the most adventuresome climaxes in movie history, the movie is really a think piece, and what it asks viewers to consider is heady stuff indeed.

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