Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

Maverick Japanese director Miike Takashi directs this period samurai film, a remake of Kobayashi Masaki's 1962 classic Harakiri. In 17th century Japan, a samurai called Hanshiro (Ichikawa Ebizô) turns up at the Li household to request permission to commit ritual suicide after falling into shameful poverty. Suspicious of Hanshiro's motives, Li boss Kageyu (Yakusho Koji) tries to dissuade him from his path by telling him of the horrific fate of the last ronin to have made this request, a young man called Motome (Eita Nagajama). Hanshiro appears undeterred, but as his own story unfolds in flashback it becomes clear that his true motives are very different from those he first declared. (Universal Pictures UK)