Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

Play trailer

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

Released Jul 20, 2012

2h 6m

History

Drama

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

76%

Tomatometer

42 Reviews

75%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

A samurai (Ebizô Ichikawa) asks permission to commit ritual suicide in the courtyard of a prominent feudal lord and hears the gruesome tale of what happened to a comrade who made a similar request several months earlier.

Watch on Fandango at Home

Buy Now

Critics Consensus

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai adds an atypically restrained entry to the Takashi Miike filmography that loses little impact in favoring human drama over action.

Read Critics Reviews

Marc Savlov

Austin Chronicle

Hara-Kiri may be a lesser Miike work, but it's still a (literally) gutsy exercise in prolonged narrative recursiveness.

Rated: 2.5/5

Aug 31, 2012

Full Review

Barbara VanDenburgh

Arizona Republic

A quiet, narratively layered period drama with a focus squarely on character.

Rated: 3.5/5

Aug 16, 2012

Full Review

Mark Feeney

Boston Globe

Miike can't seem to get enough of Hanshiro's heroics. That's not just visual excess, though.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 26, 2012

Full Review

Diego Batlle

Otroscines.com

Rigorous and solemn... [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 7.5/10

Oct 4, 2022

Full Review

Stephen Saito

Moveable Fest

"Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai" offers a reason to rejoice, allowing Miike to stretch his abilities in a film that's deliberately paced, but moving nonetheless in invoking an emotion rarely seen in his films before: compassion.

Dec 17, 2018

Full Review

Isabel Stevens

ViewLondon

The emphasis throughout is not on action, but melodrama - with a rather long and overstated middle section devoted to Monotome's backstory which has little dramatic tension.

Rated: 2/5

Aug 27, 2018

Full Review

Read all reviews

Liam D

An more mature film from Director Takashi Miike (Dead or Alive: Final, Over Your Dead Body) it’s an samurai drama that explores the humanity of being one with great performances

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

07/21/24

Full Review

Audience Member

Removing the top knot fight scenes killed the reboot for me. It really missed the mark on the energy at the end. Where is the maniacal laughter of a man who has lost everything, and now gets the last laugh by exposing the facade of samurai honor? Where are the cries of him being a madman? Why did Takashi change the final fight scene so he only had a bamboo sword? A vengeful show of violence, bloodshed, and mockery were supposed to usher in the final act of hara kiri ever committed in that house.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Such an interesting start, such a slow and drab end. Thought I'd bought the classic, turns out I hadn't oops. Better go looking for it again.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Slow paced but worth the watch

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/24/20

Full Review

Audience Member

original was better than this crap

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not yet seen but funny to read that some critics think its about the seppuku ritual...ridiculous

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/17/19

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Takashi Miike

Director

Ebizô Ichikawa

Hanshirô Tsugumo

Eita Nagayama

Motome

Hikari Mitsushima

Miho

Naoto Takenaka

Tajiri

Munetaka Aoki

Hikokuro Omodaka

View more photos

Synopsis

A samurai (Ebizô Ichikawa) asks permission to commit ritual suicide in the courtyard of a prominent feudal lord and hears the gruesome tale of what happened to a comrade who made a similar request several months earlier.

Director: Takashi Miike
Producer: Toshiaki Nakazawa, Jeremy Thomas
Screenwriter: Kikumi Yamagishi
Distributor: Tribeca Film
Production Co: Kôdansha, Dentsu, Oriental Light and Magic, Recorded Picture Company (RPC)
Genre: History, Drama
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 20, 2012, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 22, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $60.2K
Runtime: 2h 6m

Most Popular at Home Now