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 shot in real time.

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I am beginning to get fed up with these slow as molasses Harakiri films. The women, as I have mentioned before look like expressionless factory workers – just maybe if they were semi decent looking might this pain be lessend. But I keep reminding myself that a women, who may potentially expose her breasts to us, plans on committing suicide (a bloody one at that), and we get to watch the whole thing. It sounds convincing but just try to sit through one of these films and your patience will be tested like never before. It’s 45-50 minutes of one girl in one room slowly, very slowly committing suicide. Ah my friend, I know that the "committing suicide" part might get you through and it kind of does, but barely. I feel like Arnold in the film Predator, at the end as he’s being whisked away to safety. He has that blank expressionless face that tells us he’s been through hell and back.

We open on an ugly Asian woman dressed in a white nurse’s outfit. She starts to play with the knife. The background static of a cheap camera and lousy background music really make you frown; simply because we have to listen to it uninterrupted for almost an hour. She covers the knife with a handkerchief and plays with it some more. She picks it up and rubs the blade to her chest, she hugs the knife towards her body. She is wearing pale yellow stockings which make her look old and her legs unattractive. She puts down the knife and looks at it for eight minutes. Then she slowly opens her dress and pretends to stab herself.

There have been 5 or more jump-cuts that I have seen so far, and a male voice off screen presumably tells her what to do next (I don’t know, I don’t speak Japanese). To fast forward to the end: she cut her abdomen pretty good; nice deep cut. Blood comes out nicely from the wound and soaks her panties a dark cherry red. In a few minutes her whole crotch is soaked and dripping blood. She then moans and whimpers softly as she bleeds out and crawls around the floor clutching her belly. Like a bloody slug she moves to a column and in a sitting position slides the knife under her bra until we see some breast (it’s about time). Then she stabs her left tit with the knife, crawls a bit more moaning gently and just drops dead clutching the knife in between her bloody hands.

We have just finished the third Harakiri film, and I don’t know about you but I'm being worn out. Knowing I have to sit through three more is no relief. Maybe I should pull out my own intestines and crawl around my room half-naked. Sorry...wandering. Till next one. God bless your souls, each and everyone of you.

- Jorge Antonio Lopez