Harakiri (Seppuki 切腹)

#2 The 1960s and 70s in Japan are marked by student protests and riots. Many were radicals but I personally know a few who participated in some of the protests to varying degrees. The protests began in the late 1950s for the return of Okinawa to Japan, boiled over with the unpopular mutual security treaty between Japan and the US in 1960 and developed into riots against the Viet Nam war and for education reform at the University of Tokyo to end bureaucratic authoritarianism and meaningless lectures by disengaged professors. Underlying these protests was a deep-seated distrust of "the man", those who scheme to maintain appearances and their position of authority... but this is a conversation better left to the political scientists of whom I am not one.
　However, I can say that a number of the films of this era seem to reflect this distrust of higher authority. The second film I show is "Harakiri" (切腹 Seppuku) recipient of the Special Jury Award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. The film is about two masterless but law-abiding samurai who struggle to make a living by making paper umbrellas and fans or teaching the Classics to neighborhood kids instead of wandering the country as mercenaries. They are juxtaposed against samurai who are members of major clans that live in the mansions of their Lord in the city of Edo, samurai who espouse the Way of the Warrior (Bushido), a life style created by and for the samurai elite to justify and glorify their status in society. The story begins with rumors of masterless samurai "requesting" an official place to commit ritual suicide on the grounds of the palatial residence of a major clan but ultimately receiving a position in the clan or at least some money to discourage them from making a mess--socio-politically rather than physically--of their house. Chijiwa is not of this dubious ilk but his infant son is sick and he cannot even afford a doctor so he tries his hand at this scheme to glean a few coins for his family but is surprised to find that he will be forced to fulfill his request. The suicide ritual is gruesomely cruel. Tsugumo, Chijiwa's father-in-law and also masterless, reacts: He decides to call out the hypocrisy of this particular house (and the ruling class in general), revealing that their "code" of Bushido is just a facade.