Harakiri

In conjunction with the current exhibit Samurai and The Culture of Japan’s Great Peace, the Yale Peabody Museum is co-sponsoring The Samurai Film Series.  The series includes three films that highlight the code of samurai from different perspectives, both positive and critical. The selected films have also been influential in Western culture and cinema, and these connections will be highlighted during the screening.

The next film is Harakiri scheduled for Saturday, October 3. The film will be shown at Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center at 53 Wall St., New Haven. The doors open at 6:30 pm, film talks begin at 7 pm. Films are free of charge.

Harakiri is a 1962 film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. An award-winner at the Cannes Film Festival, it is one of the most celebrated samurai films for its presentation of a lone samurai taking individual revenge against a feudal system that made a mockery of the humanistic values that were also supposed to be part of the samurai code.

The series is co-sponsored by Yale University’s Film and Media Studies department, theWhitney Humanities Center, the Yale Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures. Support for the film series is from the Connecticut Humanities, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which supports cultural and historic organizations that tell the state’s stories, build community and enrich lives.  Professor Aaron Gerow will introduce the film with a short talk and discussion. A Yale graduate student in Japanese film history, Stephen Poland, will introduce the third film,Kill, on Saturday, October 10.