Harakiri

Harakiri (1962, original title 切腹 / Seppuku) is a Japanese historical drama from Shochiku — watch it online on iFILM. Director Masaki Kobayashi and screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto turned the samurai code into an indictment: a film about how ritual honor becomes a weapon aimed at the powerless.

Ronin Hanshiro Tsugumo, played by Tatsuya Nakadai, arrives at the gates of the wealthy Iyi clan and asks permission to perform seppuku on their grounds. The clan elders assume he is bluffing — hoping for money rather than an honorable death. They are wrong. Through a story told in two interlocking layers, Tsugumo unravels what happened to a young ronin before him, and each detail exposes another gap between the words "honor" and "decency." Shima Iwashita and Tetsuro Tamba complete the main cast.

The film won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1963. Shot in austere black-and-white across 135 minutes, it remains one of the most precise critiques of institutional cruelty in world cinema. Stream Harakiri (1962) online on iFILM.