02-25-2013, 12:05 PM
My wife gave me a DVD of Harakiri for Valentines, which is one of the many reasons why I love her.
I saw the ending of original Harakiri as a child in HI. It was all in Japanese, and I was blow away by it. It haunted me for years because I didn't know what that film was until maybe a decade later when I saw it at some Art rep house. It remains one of my all-time favs.
Netflix streaming had the original available for a few weeks. I put off watching it again (it's been years) until I could see this new one. Now Netflix has the new one, but not the original. Dammit.
As for the new one, it is the first Miike film that I found rather lacking. It's a good film, very beautiful, but Miike only makes a few subtle and inconsequential twists to the story. It doesn't go to that special Miike dark place at all. Some of the scenes seem almost exactly the same as the original. So in the end, Miike's new version feels totally unnecessary. I was quite disappointed.
Good sword fights tho. Of course, if you know the film already, you have to wait until the very end, and it might not be worth it. See the original, if you can.
I saw the ending of original Harakiri as a child in HI. It was all in Japanese, and I was blow away by it. It haunted me for years because I didn't know what that film was until maybe a decade later when I saw it at some Art rep house. It remains one of my all-time favs.
Netflix streaming had the original available for a few weeks. I put off watching it again (it's been years) until I could see this new one. Now Netflix has the new one, but not the original. Dammit.
As for the new one, it is the first Miike film that I found rather lacking. It's a good film, very beautiful, but Miike only makes a few subtle and inconsequential twists to the story. It doesn't go to that special Miike dark place at all. Some of the scenes seem almost exactly the same as the original. So in the end, Miike's new version feels totally unnecessary. I was quite disappointed.
Good sword fights tho. Of course, if you know the film already, you have to wait until the very end, and it might not be worth it. See the original, if you can.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse