Jim Jarmusch combines his love for the ice-cool crime dramas of Jean-Pierre Melville and Seijun Suzuki with the philosophical dimensions of samurai mythology for an eccentrically postmodern take on the hit-man thriller. In one of his defining roles, Forest Whitaker brings a commanding serenity to his portrayal of a Zen contract killer working for a bumbling mob outfit, a modern man who adheres steadfastly to the ideals of the Japanese warrior code even as chaos and violence spiral around him. Featuring moody cinematography by the great Robby Müller, a mesmerizing score by the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, and a host of colorful character actors (including a memorably stone-faced Henry Silva), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai plays like a pop-culture-sampling cinematic mixtape built around a one-of-a-kind tragic hero.
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Supplements
- Alternate isolated stereo music track
- New Q&A with Jim Jarmusch, in which he responds to questions sent in by fans
- New conversation between actors Forest Whitaker and Isaach de Bankolé, moderated by film scholar Michael B. Gillespie
- New interview with casting director Ellen Lewis
- New interview with Shifu Shi Yan Ming, founder of the USA Shaolin Temple
- New video essay on RZA’s original score for the film
- The Odyssey: A Journey into the Life of a Samurai, a 2000 program on the making of the film
- Deleted scenes and outtakes
- Archival interviews
- Trailer
- An essay by critic Greg Tate and quotations from Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, by the early-eighteenth-century monk Yamamoto Tsunetomo