Cinema
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Jim Jarmusch · 1999
Synopsis
In an industrial city in New Jersey, Ghost Dog, a hitman, lives alone in a shack on a roof, among his homing pigeons, which carry him his orders. He obeys Louie, a low-ranking soldier of the local mafia who saved his life, and behaves towards him as a samurai towards his master, following a Japanese treatise of the eighteenth century. His best friend, a Haitian ice-cream seller, speaks only French, a language Ghost Dog does not understand. A contract carried out in front of a witness leads the family to decide to get rid of him, and Louie is charged with helping them.
Context
Seventh fiction feature by its director, written around the Hagakure, a treatise by Yamamoto Tsunetomo from which fourteen passages appear on screen between scenes. The music is by a member of the Wu-Tang Clan, a New York rap collective, who also appears on screen, and the film was shot in Jersey City for two million dollars. Presented in competition at Cannes in May 1999, the film was released in France in October, before the United States, where it did not arrive until March 2000.
Who it is for
A film running one hour fifty-six minutes, with a taciturn main character, interspersed with written quotations.
Prizes and reception
More than nine million dollars in theatrical takings in the United States, on a budget of two million.
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