I keep adding these old masterpieces out of a sense of duty but I have to admit that I don’t always enjoy actually watching them. This is the second film by Masaki Kobayashi on my list and I will say that it is easily one of the best samurai films I’ve ever seen. Seppuku itself is now part of the popular vernacular and so hardly alien. Yet the film still succeeds in making it feel viscerally real, dissecting the practice bit by bit with a critical eye. I loved the slow buildup of tension through the extensive dialogue, culminating in explosive violence that literally tramples on traditional notions of samurai honor. I’d expected something much more reverential but this one really doesn’t hold back its contempt for the samurai warrior ethos.

A rōnin named Tsugumo Hanshirō arrives at the estate of the Iyi clan in Edo asking permission to commit seppuku in their courtyard for reasons of poverty. The clan’s senior counselor muses that many rōnin have been doing the same since the Battle of Sekigahara left them masterless and after one such rōnin was taken in by a clan who took pity on him. Many have no intention of committing suicide and just want to extort money. The counselor recounts how another rōnin named Chijiiwa Motome made the same request months before. He had even sold his swords and replaced them bamboo ones and had asked for a delay when given permission to perform the ritual. Three of the Iyi clan’s senior forced Motome to carry through with the suicide despite the difficulty of using a bamboo blade to cut himself. Hanshirō then reveals that he is Motome’s father-in-law and recounts the hardship they had faced. He talks about about Motome was forced into such dishonorable actions due to his wife and son being sick and castigates the Iyi clan for their superficial sense of honor.

This really has it all as a samurai film, dramatic staging, impactful dialogue, stories within stories and towards the end, raw, unbridled violence. The faces of all the actors say so much, Hanshirō’s wide-eyed look at the beginning as he begs for the use of a courtyard to his contempt at the end as he reveals his plan, the arrogance of the Iyi clan samurai, the cleverness of their counselor. I’m not sure that the fight choreography is really that good, but the posturing before the duels certainly look cool and there’s fumbling and desperation in it that plausibly shows how a single warrior might hold off superior numbers. It’s impressive that the director manages to tell both sides of the story in a sympathetic manner. So when the counselor discusses how to resolve the problem of rōnin turning up begging for alms in a face saving way, we’re led to agree with him that they are frauds. Yet when Hanshirō is allowed to tell the story of his life, we understand how he was driven to such straits step by step. We see how both are right from their respective perspectives.

Of course there is zero doubt that Kobayashi sides much more with Hanshirō and this film is by and large a powerful indictment of samurai culture. It opens with a shot of the Iyi clan’s ancestral suit of armor, an object of veneration, and more or less ends with the armor being trashed on the ground. It’s such a bold condemnation that I’m left gobsmacked and I’m not sure I’ve seen this level of venality in more recent Japanese films. The film shows how impossible it is for rōnin, effectively demobilized soldiers, to make an ordinary living like anyone else as it is a crime for them to work as common labor. The counselor’s subsequent actions make it clear that what matters above all is saving face and samurai honor really is a facade as Hanshirō claims. What’s worse is that it goes all the way up to the shogun himself who commends the Iyi clan for their decisive action. The truth matters not at all so the desecrated ancestral armor merely has to be cleaned up for the sake of appearances.

That the film opens by making it look as if the Iyi clan are acting reasonably only makes its messaging at the end more devastating. In addition to the masterful ramping up of the tension, there is so much detail about their lives in that era and the way they speak and behave. I pronounce this to be a true masterpiece and possibly the best samurai film ever made because it boldly punctures the myth of samurai honor.