MovieChat Forums > Seppuku (1964) Discussion > definitely not my kind of movie

definitely not my kind of movie

posted 10 years ago by benmasta
5 replies | jump to latest

theres nothing more i hate in movies than huge plot points being revealed at the start, and explained through the movie. I find this type of storytelling extremely boring and annoying as the mystery of a story is what i enjoy.

as soon as i found out that motomome was the guy who killed himself at the start, this movie had already played out in my head, and then on screen.

It ended how i thought and it was obvious it was going to be a revenge suicide.

Honestly i just wasnt that entertained. Not to say it isnt a good movie. It just felt like it took 2 hours too long lol. The acting was good too btw.

Basically i just didnt like it at all. I was bored as hell, and felt like this was more of an art piece rather than an engaging story that entertains. I hate movies that arent an adventure of some type.

Personally id give this a generous 6/10, tho i would expect many would disagree. The rating is based completely on personal taste and nothing more.

[–] FilmKoala 10 years ago

Well, in my humble opinion, this is the best movie ever made. So obviously I disagree with you. I'm sorry you feel that way, but I guess there's no accounting for taste.

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Ram this in your clambake, bitchcakes!

[–] unkinhead22 10 years ago

Wait what? So you saw Motome commit Harakiri, then instantly knew that Tsugomo had a father/son relationship with him, his family was killed due to lack of funds, and that he cut the top knots off of the famed samurai in the area in revenge for the forceful act of Harakiri, and basically culminated in a message that disgraced Bushido? I doubt it.

Also in regards to it being an "art piece": While it was certainly artistic I found it rather riveting. Far more so than many "Adventure" films for that matter.

Just my two cents.

[–] boxerrebellion 8 years ago

I think that the OP may not realize that this film was not made for modern American audiences. First, it was made for Japanese audiences; even today, Japanese culture and society have a philosophy very different from the western viewpoint. Also, movies need to be viewed not only with a cognizance of the time period represented, but also of the time period when they are made.

[–] A_Race_Car_in_the_Red 9 years ago

theres nothing more i hate in movies than huge plot points being revealed at the start, and explained through the movie. I find this type of storytelling extremely boring and annoying as the mystery of a story is what i enjoy.

That makes absolutely no sense. All mysteries begin with an inciting incident at the beginning, which is is explained later. Are you unfamiliar with the genre? Regardless, though, this movie isn't a mystery, it's a display of the lack of humanity in the samurai code.

as soon as i found out that motomome was the guy who killed himself at the start,

Why would you have to figure out that Motomome was the guy who got killed at the start? They tell you who it was, multiple times. This is not a big mystery.

this movie had already played out in my head, and then on screen. It ended how i thought and it was obvious it was going to be a revenge suicide.

It is supposed to be obvious as soon as Hanshiro says that Chijiiwa was an acquaintance of his, that's why everyone at clan Iyi becomes cautious of him at that point. The movie isn't the Sherlock Holmes mystery novel you think it is, it's supposed to explain Chijiiwa 's story and how desperate he had become so we would understand and sympathize with these ronin pretending to perform harakiri, and demonstrate to us the failure of the samurai code. The object of the movie was not to discover Col. Mustard in the ballroom with the knife, but somehow you got that idea in your head.

Personally id give this a generous 6/10, tho i would expect many would disagree. The rating is based completely on personal taste and nothing more.

Well, I hope you didn't rate it, then. Some objectivity is required to give fair ratings.

🚕 "You talkin' to me?" 

[–] Tin_ear 8 years ago

I can see your point about the ending being somewhat obvious and the film being a little too long, but the real point of the movie wasn't the revenge plot. The director was making a bigger metaphorical point about the Japanese code of honor that screwed up the country and led to WWII. The protagonist didn't just humiliate and dishonor the clan, but exposed it to them, rubbed it in their faces. He defiled their altar by showing how it was hollow. Japan has (or had) a huge hangup about that, and it is still a relevant theme.

It is an art piece, but that is sort of what a drama is. This wasn't really meant to be an action movie.

Even most action movies have blatantly obvious plots. Typically we know a ton of stuff before the film even begins: James Bond will escape death by some gadget or contrivance and have sex with a cute woman, superheroes will never let the world be destroyed, kids in movies never die no matter what danger they are in (except in a John Carpenter film), every prison escape film will definitely feature an escape, every horror film will feature jump scares and overly-elaborate death scenes of every unimportant character, zombie movies inevitably feature people hold up somewhere bitching at each other until finally the zombies break through, etc.