This ‘90s Crime Thriller Starring Forest Whitaker Uses the Samurai Code and Mafia Tropes To Meditate on Perspective

Cinema has long been fascinated by samurai. From Daisuke Itō’s silent era films to Akira Kurosawa’s mastery of motion, stories of samurai have shaped how directors film period pieces, action, and drama. The same can be said for the Mafia. From 1931’s The Public Enemy to The Godfather, through the foundational piece of prestige television that is The Sopranos, mob life has fascinated audiences and directors alike. In 1999, director Jim Jarmusch’s film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai—released only a few months after The Sopranos premiered—melded these dual codes with a meditative look at violence and the personal philosophies born from it.