Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai (1999)

Gas Giants

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Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai (1999)

"Matters of great concern should be treated lightly, likewise matters of small concern should be treated seriously." Sounds like a job for the Gas Giants.

Feb 21, 2025

Transcript

Ghost Dog was apparently the moment when Jim Jarmusch, ( who produced,wrote and directed the movie), achieved “Mainstream Recognition”, but what does this fundamentally mournful reflection on the end of things have to tell us?

Let’s start here…

Although it has a striking originality, the film didn’t come from nowhere, for example-
This…

(BTW, HERE is the complete movie on youtube.)

…or even this…

The Hagakure & other reading.

HERE is the complete text of Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure
HERE is the online text of “Rashomon”
The very short introduction in this English version of the desperately long Musashi is quite informative and gives Hagakure some context. For example
Another great transition in early seventeenth century Japan was in the
nature of leadership. With peace restored and major warfare at an end, the dominant warrior class found that military prowess was less essential to successful rule than administrative talents. The samurai class started a slow transformation from being warriors of the gun and sword to being bureaucrats of the writing brush and paper. Disciplined self-control and education in a society at peace was becoming more important than skill in warfare.
HERE is the complete text.

The Soundtrack

The RZA’s score for the film is almost like a character itself, a fact which is ironic when you consider that the man himself has a brief walk-on part in the movie, but there are actually two albums out there which look like being the soundtrack, without actually being that entirely; let us explain…

This is the first video in a youtube playlist of the full soundtrack album. It is mostly made up of instrumental tracks used in the movie, with a couple of extra Wu- Tang and RZA cuts that weren’t included…

This has a lot more of the music from the movie, not all of from the RZA and with a lot more vocals. You also get clips of Forrest Whitaker reading from the Hagakure…