There aren’t many directors as prolific as Japan’s Takashi Miike, who since 1991 has turned out 88 films, from perverse to family-friendly. At age 51, he shows no sign of slowing down. His latest to hit New York is “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai,” a 3-D epic that, despite its title, is more of a soap opera than a swordplay thriller.
It begins with the type of violence expected of Miike (“Ichi the Killer”): a graphic, ritualistic suicide and a samurai free-for-all. In between is a tranquil story, with luscious shots of flowers and trees, the sound of birds chirping and a cuddly white cat.
The remake of a 1963 Japanese flick, Miike’s subdued film revolves around Hanshiro (Ebizo Ichikawa), an impoverished 17th-century warrior who begs a feudal lord for permission to use his courtyard to slice open his belly in the agonizing samurai ritual known as hara-kiri. “I can no longer bear the pain,” Hanshiro says of his tragic life. But the lord fears that Hanshiro is only bluffing in a bid for charity, and tells him the gruesome, cautionary tale of a predecessor who was forced to go through with suicide even after the clan discovered that he had only a bamboo replica of his real sword, which he had pawned.
Moviegoers hoping for another Miike orgy of mega-violent torture will be disappointed — or maybe not. “Hara-Kiri” boasts an intelligent script, solid acting and just enough mayhem to keep Miike fans from going into withdrawal. Meanwhile, Miike’s action-filled “13 Assassins,” which he made just before “Hara-Kiri,’’ unreels tomorrow at 8:20 p.m. at the Japan Society.