Hara-kiri Death of a Samurai

For those that have Netflix, I recommend you look up the movie "Hara-kiri Death of a Samurai" and check it out when you have 2 hours of free time.  It's a remake of Masaki Kobayashi's "Harakiri."  I picked it out because I've been looking at Takeshi Miike's work - I find that I like a few of his movies but utterly repulsed by some others (I'm looking at you, Audition.)  If you have seen the original, I'm not sure that this version adds much - someone else will have to tell me about it.

I highly recommend going in there with no expectations about what the movie is about.  So if you are planning to see this movie sometime in the future, don't read on.  I want to rehash what I ended up seeing and feeling while watching the movie...

We good?  Ok, here we go...

This movie is the very first movie that had made me feel ashamed of myself.  The whole first half of the movie was framed in such a way that I thought Motome deserved everything he received - that his begging for one more day (and not his life) was cowardly.

The second half then showed the tragedy behind Motome.  It told me of the rough life he endured and the true sacrifice he was making for his family.  His begging for one more day wasn't for himself, but for his family.  His "cowardly" act was actually one of true honor.

This movie taught me to be a little more compassionate and empathetic.  The movie made me feel like a judgmental bastard and had me face the truth about myself.  It's weird the effect this movie had on me "in real life."

See it - the original or the remake (but just not in 3D!).  Let me know if I'm the only one that felt that shame :)