  cover art   Director: Masaki Kobayashi Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai,
Rentaro Mikuni, Shima Iwashita, Akira Ishihama, Tetsuro Tamba,
Ichiro Nakaya, Yoshio Aoki  (US DVD: 4 Oct 2011)  Hanshiro
Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai), a down-and-out ronin (a masterless
samurai) appears at the gates of the prosperous Iyi clan with an
unusual request: he wishes to commit ritual suicide in their
courtyard. When Tsugumo is brought in, clan counselor Kageyu
Saito (Rentaro Mikuni) tells him that ever since a ronin
appeared at the gates of another house with the same request and
was given a job, half-starved ronin have been coming out of the
woodwork, asking for the dignity of seppuku but in reality
wanting a job or a few coins in exchange for going away.
Tsugumo assures Saito that he truly means to die, at which point
Saito tells him of Motome Chijiiwa (Akira Ishihama), a samurai
who came to their gates not long before, and how his story did
not turn out as he had hoped. The house, which prides itself on
its stern martial tradition, ha