Trailer: Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

Takeshi Miike’s most recent film, 13 Assassins, has been getting some pretty solid hype. Xander saw it way back in October for the London Film Festival and liked it well enough. Now we have a trailer for Miike’s new movie, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, set to premiere at Cannes, and it looks pretty solid. Obviously, it’s hard to glean a lot from thirty-four seconds, but I like what I’m seeing. Here also is a synopsis of the film, which puts us in store for much more of a thoughtful piece than the intense thirty-minute battle sequence of 13 Assassins:

Hanshiro (Ebizo Ichikawa), an honorable, poverty-stricken samurai requesting to commit hara-kiri in the courtyard of feudal lord Kageyu’s estate. Trying to dismiss Hanshiro’s wish to save face, Kageyu (Koji Yakusho) recounts the tragic story of a similar plea years ago from young ronin Motome (Eita). But the arrogant lord is unaware of vengeful Hanshiro’s bond to Motome.