Series Overview:

This was a birthday gift from my good friend Jose. He couldn’t have picked a better gift. If you don’t know so already, Harakiri, also known as Seppuku is the ceremonial suicide rite for the Japanese. It is performed with a tanto blade inserted into the abdomen and thrust left to right. It was originally only performed by the samurai as part of their code but lay women and men have performed this fearful task upon themselves as well. In a second procedure, which I believe was used less often, an appointed kaishakunin would then perform dakikubi, using the blade to slowly decapitate the samurai. Over time it became a detailed ritual involving spectators and a sense of formality and artfulness. In these series of short films (six to be exact) we witness a seppuku ceremony from start to finish in real time.

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In Female Harakiri: Glorious Death a woman at the foot of the stairs is staring at what seems to be her military outfit. We then see her in a simple room, crotched down with a white cloth under her. She is wearing a peach colored kimono. You can see her psychologically prepare herself for her grisly demise by handling the ritual blade thoughtfully. She opens and closes the knife. At one point she seems to be praying. She opens her robe and brings it down to her waist. We finally get a good look at those Asian titties and they are pretty horrible. This lady has the upper body structure of a young man. It’ s disgusting. She then meticulously runs her hands over her abdomen feeling the area she will soon slice. Then she wraps the lower part of the knife’s blade, by the hilt, with a white cloth, similar to a handkerchief. I guess this is done so she could easily manipulate the blade across her mid section. Finally she sticks it in. The gore is displayed with amazing realism. She doesn’t even scream while she cuts her belly open, just moaning and heavy breathing. She starts to bleed out profusely and slowly, very slowly, dies. She writhes in agony almost for the last half hour. That is not a bad thing. You see her try to hold her guts in as she keeps bleeding. She crawls across the floor like a slug and expires by an ornamental box.

I now realize these were direct to video Japanese shorts. I wonder how many people even know these exist. The first thing that crept through my mind was that this was simulated real time suicide. I also wonder if harakiri practitioners actually spend so much time contemplating and performing rituals. I desperately wanted a sexual element here but there was only disgusting looking, factory worker breasts. In the second film of the series, a somewhat prettier woman adds a subtle, and I repeat subtle, sexual thing with her fingers.

- Jorge Antonio Lopez