There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue.
Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai
I came upon this movie in a Criterion Channel collection of movies that came out in 1999. The title caught my eye. I have an mild ongoing fascination with samurai. Having watched Kurosawa’s Ran along with the animated show Blue Eye Samurai earlier this year, the title and synopsis of the movie was enough to motivate me to give this a watch.
The story follows the actions of the titular Ghost Dog, a hitman for a mafia. Ghost Dog is an adherent of the code of the samurai. He is seen reading from Hagakure, the Book of the Samurai and several quotations from that book are read aloud by the actor playing Ghost Dog, Forest Whitaker.
This the calmest, most chill movie about a dude killing people I have ever seen in my life. Every murderous scene moves with a silence punctuated by the sound of gunshots muffled by the silencer on Ghost Dog’s pistol. Interspersed between scenes of violence are Ghost Dog’s conversation with a child who likes reading and an ice cream truck vendor who only speaks French and whom Ghost Dog doesn’t understand as he only speaks English.
If I had to summarize the movie with one phrase: a meditation on death. A mediation that has one hell of a banger soundtrack that comes with it specifically hip-hop from Wu-Tang Clan, RZA and associated acts. As a hip-hop head I greatly enjoyed this aspect of the movie.
This is an action move but in sharp contrast with one of my favourite action movies of all time John Wick, this is one that revels in the quieter moments. John Wick is loud and flashy, it has a fetishistic obsession with guns. In Ghost Dog, the weapons are treated with the obsession of a mechanic doing regular maintenance on a car. Less fetish, more utility.
I greatly enjoyed this movie and would like to watch more like this: slower, more contemplative action movies. I’ll leave y’all with another quotation from the Hagakure that the movie uses.
There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. By doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to all things.
Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai