Patriotism (Japan, 1966)

Two characters on a Noh stage dramatize the rite of love and death of Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama and his wife Reiko. Takeyama was one of a cadre of young officers who staged a coup d'état in February, 1936. He was not arrested when the coup failed, but as an officer of the palace guard, he knew he would be given the order to execute his friends. The night before the execution, he and his wife prepare for hara-kiri, first with passion without shyness, then in uniform and kimono with sword and dagger. Calligraphy figures in the preparation, as Reiko gathers her keepsakes to give to survivors.

I've written about Yukio Mishima before and how the movie Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) tells the story of his bitter end. In short, he committed suicide by seppuku following an unsuccessful coup. Four years before he directs the short film Patriotism which deals mainly with the act of seppuku (a.k.a. harakiri), and treats it all like a Noh play (classical Japanese musical drama) with static shots and long close-ups.  The act itself is portrayed with seemingly no censorship at all and for 1966 this must have been extremely graphic. Mishima himself plays the Lieutenant and one can't help but think of the irony of fate. After Mishima's own suicide the film was ordered to be destroyed and all copies burned, but many years later the original negatives were found and received a restored release, and I'm very glad that happened because it's a huge puzzle piece in the enigma of Yukio Mishima and offers a stunning and fascinating insight into his mind. The lighting and the beautiful black and white photography comes together perfectly, and you would never guess this was Mishima's directorial debut.

Patriotism is a short yet fantastic insight into Japanese culture, and erupts in one of the most gory and realistic depictions of one of Japans most mythical and ancient traditions, seppuku.

Genre: Drama/Short. 25min.

Harakiri (Japan, 1962)

Peace in 17th-century Japan causes the Shogunate's breakup of warrior clans, throwing thousands of samurai out of work and into poverty. An honorable end to such fate under the samurai code is ritual suicide, or hara-kiri (self-inflicted disembowelment). An elder warrior, Hanshiro Tsugumo, seeks admittance to the house of a feudal lord to commit the act. There, he learns of the fate of his son-in-law, a young samurai who sought work at the house but was instead barbarically forced to commit hara-kiri. In flashbacks, Hanshiro tells the tragic story of his son-in-law, and how he was forced to sell his real sword to support his sick wife and child.

A fascinating, tragic samurai tale that explores and tears down the code which the samurai lives by. Director Masaki Kobayashi (Kwaidan) was a huge fan of Akira Kurosawa's work and managed to make a jidaigeki film that doesn't try to compete with Kurosawa's epics, but has numerous times been called an anti-samurai film due to how it throws the whole samurai establishment under a bus, and exposes a lot of hypocrisy. Many scenes has a genuine sense of tangible anxiety, when it dawns on the character that death is unavoidable. Delivers great dialogue and minimalistic cinematography, and under a thick layer of grain portrays a much more restrained story compared to other films in the genre. Actor Tatsuya Nakadai (Sword of Doom) plays the lead role, and has cited Harakiri as his favorite film.

Genre: Drama