Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

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Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

2012

2h 6m

History

Drama

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76%

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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.

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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.

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Marc Savlov

Austin Chronicle

Aug 31, 2012

2.5/5

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

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Barbara VanDenburgh

Arizona Republic

Aug 16, 2012

3.5/5

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

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Mark Feeney

Boston Globe

Jul 26, 2012

3/4

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

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Diego Batlle

Otroscines.com

Oct 4, 2022

7.5/10

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

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Stephen Saito

Moveable Fest

Dec 17, 2018

"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.

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Isabel Stevens

ViewLondon

Aug 27, 2018

2/5

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.

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Akira B

@akirabergman May 18, 2026

"loses little impact in favoring human drama over action" says the critics consensus. The action fetish is quite mature I see.

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Leprechaun K

@LeprechaunKing Jan 31, 2026

A remake of the classic. Great storytelling with good performances throughout, particularly Nagayama's. Ironically, the final act loses its momentum.

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Liam D

@Mediawatcher2003 Jul 21, 2024

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

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Leaburn O

@RT35452347 Jan 6, 2021

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.

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Oct 24, 2020

Slow paced but worth the watch

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Mar 12, 2020

original was better than this crap

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Takashi Miike

Director

Ebizô Ichikawa

Hanshirô Tsugumo

Eita Nagayama

Motome

Hikari Mitsushima

Miho

Naoto Takenaka

Tajiri

Munetaka Aoki

Hikokuro Omodaka

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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

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