I saw Takashi Miike‘s Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and in my review I opened by saying, “Somehow [Miike] has managed to make a film six minutes shorter than Masaki Kobayashi‘s far superior 1962 classic and make it feel as if it is one hour longer.” The film has been picked up by Tribeca Film and for whatever reason they are going ahead with a 3-D release on July 20, just after the film is made available on Video On Demand on July 18. I say “for whatever reason” because it is one example of some of the absolute worst 3-D I have ever seen in a film that is an absolute bore and the fact they are selling it as from the director of 13 Assassins is infuriating considering the two films fall on polar opposite ends of the entertainment spectrum.
The story centers on an unemployed samurai (Ebizo Ichikawa) who sets out to exact revenge on the House of Ii after learning the fate of his son-in-law (Eita) in the house’s courtyard two months earlier. For those that have seen Kobayashi’s original, which is quite spectacular and available on Criterion Blu-ray, you might watch this trailer and see some beautiful visuals, but trust me when I say the heart of Kobayashi’s adaptation of Yasuhiko Takiguchi’s novel is nowhere to be found in Miike’s interpretation.
You can watch the domestic trailer below and read my review from Cannes right here.
