Thanks for the memories!

Overrated

One of my all time favorites.

Admirable film.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a unique movie.For a movie with action tag it very slow and calm unlike any other action movies came out the same year but that one of the reason make it special.Ghost Dog actually is a hit-man for mafia played by Forest Whitaker and he very strange.Follow the way of samurai in ancient Japan is the best hit-man you can find.He always strike when the enemies not expected and the only way you can contact him is though pigeon.The movie like i said earlier very slow but there's never a dull or boring moment.In the end the movie bring a strong message for young generation:Old tradition maybe gone but not forgotten

Many rappers like RZA are obsessed with Japanese culture, and samurais in particular. It would be easy to reduce Ghost Dog to a sort of a rapper's fantasy, but it's much more than that. In fact I see it more as a comedy remake of Leon by Luc Besson, both heroes following the same path. Jarmusch says it's a remake of Le Samurai with Alain Delon, but although the story is closer to it than to Leon, it's really different in mood. Ghost Dog is slow, often absurd, poetic, and funny. The old school mafia guys are just hilarious and pathetic, against a fluid and strange Ghost Dog. You really feel the solitary life of Ghost Dog, and there are a few touching moments: his relationship with Raymond, the pigeons, all enhanced by a beautiful soundtrack and cinematography. It's not a movie for everyone, it is very slow, European in style but with a strong American background : the city, the music, the people... It's just a gem of a movie.

This Jarmusch film needs to be compared with Jean-Pierre Melville's 1967 French film "Le Samourai" because both stories are essentially the same. Further both films have birds playing a major role. Both films have a female witness to a key assassination. Both films have the assassin stealing cars.Thankfully the Jarmusch film shows birds returning to thank the humans and the bonding is key. For Melville, the bird seemed to have intelligence and communicated to the human through unusual twittering. Jarmusch was probably closer to reality here.Jarmusch succeeds where Melville failed by adding philosophy, interesting supporting characters--the ice cream vendor and the smart girl who carries books in her lunch box. Melville merely reduced the story to a cop and an assassin trying to resolve the respective mysteries.

In terms of the actual content, I had never seen Jarmusch make a crime/action film. But once you extend from that, you realize that yes, this is very much a Jarmusch film. The acing, the look, the tone of the whole thing, very reminiscent of an art foreign film in terms of what it actually does. Don't get me wrong, the film does have enough action, but yeah, it won't be for anyone. I didn't love it and if I hadn't seen other Jarmusch films before I would probably grade it lower, but I already know how his films tend to fare with me over time, so I'm taking that into account. Definitely something to linger in the mind, see how it actually does a few months from now.