Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai

Ghost Dog “It is bad when one thing becomes two. One should not look for anything else in the Way of the Samurai. It is the same for anything that is called a Way. If one understands things in this manner, he should be able to hear about all ways and be more and more in accord with his own.” Thus is the struggle of Ghost Dog, an African American trying to live by the Bushido code of the Samurai, as dictacted by the book the Hagakure: Way of the Samurai, while living in a world dominated by the declining respectability of the Italian-American Mafia, the Cosa Nostra. Throughout this film, certain themes including foreshadowing, death, loyalty, and knowledge are maintained and shown in various ways and through various elements, such as
Much of the plot is developed, not through dialogue between characters, but in things outside the characters, such as the Hagakure and the cartoons that the characters are watching throughout the film. Scenes from the Hagakure both foreshadow events, and make more prominent the things that go against it. For example, there is a quote form the Hagakure “According to what one of the elders said, taking an enemy on the battlefield is like a hawk taking a bird. Even though it enters into the midst of a thousand of them, it gives no attention to any bird other than the one that it has first marked.” So you expect, when the gangsters find themselves on the roof with the older black man, that they would cut him slack, like they did with the Indian guy. So it comes as a surprise when they shoot him, and it also brings the audience's attention back. In other cases, the Hagakure is used to show what is being done. “In the words of the ancients, one
From Ghost Dog continuing the Way of the Samurai, to passing the book along to Pearline. From the passing along of the Mafia tradition to the daughter, and from the passing along of the Rashomon book from Louise to Ghost Dog to Louie. The Hagakure is a major part of the film in a very obvious manner, as is the mafia tradition and hierarchy. The most subtle of these is the book Rashomon and Other Stories. The story Rashomon is actually a story of one samurai’s dilemma in whether he should steal from the dead, becoming unhonorable or starve to death and retain his honor. He encounters a woman who is stealing hair and actually ends up stealing from the woman. The first story of the book, In The Grove, was specifically mentioned by Pearline and Ghost Dog as their favorite story. It’s a story of a crime told from different perspectives… similar to Louie and Ghost Dog’s varying interpretations of what happened eight years ago that led Ghost Dog to becoming Louie’s retainer. Yam Gruel is another story in the book about a low ranked samurai who longs for something unattainable, much like Louie longs to be in charge. The fourth story, The Martyr, was about an orphan who becomes an assassin and kills people he has no feelings for for someone he has no particular love for. The Dragon is a story about a priest playing a joke on other priests, but it has an underlying theme of belief without question and the absurdity of such a