Widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 jidaigeki masterpiece Harakiri is a fierce, precisely constructed deconstruction of the samurai myth.
Set in 1630 during the peace of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tatsuya Nakadai (Kagemusha) plays an impoverished ronin who arrives at the manor of the powerful Iyi clan. He requests permission to commit ritual suicide within their courtyard, an honourable end for a warrior facing starvation. Through a series of flashbacks, he reveals a deeply personal connection to the clan’s recent history, systematically exposing the corruption, cruelty, and moral emptiness hidden behind their rigid code of honour.