The instructively titled "Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai" is a frankly magnificent film; it is immensely satisfying with its winningly subtle humour and is ultimately profound. This is the third and definitely the best Jarmusch picture I have seen. I did appreciate "Stranger than Paradise" and enjoyed "Night on Earth" up to a point, but this goes way beyond what those films managed, in my opinion.
RZA's score is superb, appropriately meditative, ghostly and haunting. The whole thing seems a remarkable coming together of talents: Whitaker, Jarmusch and Wu-Tang pooling their resources to produce an odd, requiem-like crime film, which articulates a Zen outlook. The locations - mainly Jersey City, NJ - are well selected and the supporting cast deftly underplays in a way you so rarely see in today's films.
And then there is this pivotal bit of dialogue towards the end that I instantly recognised as being sampled (*very* appropriately) in Burial's dubstep elegy 'Gutted' (2006):
"Me and him we're from different ancient tribes Now we're both almost ancient Sometimes, you've got to stick with the ancient ways The old-school ways Do you understand me?"
Watch this film with an open mind; you will be immersed.
RZA's score is superb, appropriately meditative, ghostly and haunting. The whole thing seems a remarkable coming together of talents: Whitaker, Jarmusch and Wu-Tang pooling their resources to produce an odd, requiem-like crime film, which articulates a Zen outlook. The locations - mainly Jersey City, NJ - are well selected and the supporting cast deftly underplays in a way you so rarely see in today's films.
And then there is this pivotal bit of dialogue towards the end that I instantly recognised as being sampled (*very* appropriately) in Burial's dubstep elegy 'Gutted' (2006):
"Me and him we're from different ancient tribes Now we're both almost ancient Sometimes, you've got to stick with the ancient ways The old-school ways Do you understand me?"
Watch this film with an open mind; you will be immersed.