HARAKIRI Film Screening (Eng subs)
Thursday 12. February at 17:30 - 19:43
FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi
Masaki Kobayashi | 1962 | Japan | 2h13m | Japanese language with English subtitles
HARAKIRI unfolds as a quiet duel between an aging samurai and the rigid code that governs his clan. Kobayashi turns a period drama into a political indictment, using ritual as a stage for exposing cruelty disguised as honor. The film is structured as testimony. A lone ronin requests permission to commit ritual suicide inside a noble household, then slowly dismantles the story the clan tells about itself.
Through extended flashbacks, Kobayashi reveals how bureaucratic pride destroyed a young samurai family. Each revelation tightens the moral trap. The immaculate architecture and still camera frames contrast with the violence embedded in the social order. Honor is shown not as virtue but as a weapon used to protect hierarchy.
Critics have long regarded HARAKIRI as one of the great anti-authoritarian films of postwar Japanese cinema. Its skepticism toward tradition resonated strongly in the 1960s and continues to read as modern. Kobayashi transforms a genre associated with heroism into a tragedy about institutions that sacrifice human lives to preserve appearances.
Location: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.
How to find FOMO: Enter the Bazari via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left behind the jewellery stand. One flight up. Video instructions here: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0102 Tbilisi, Georgia
