Ghost Dog: The Way of The Samurai

An unusual mix of samurai and gangster genres, Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai is a 1999 movie by independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, starring Forrest Whitaker.

The story follows a hitman in the employ of the mafia, who strictly adheres to a samurai code derived from The Hagakure (a collection of quotations and musings from a famous samurai), snippets from which pop up during the movie.

The titular Ghost Dog sees himself as a retainer (in the servant sense) of a local mobster, who had saved his life years ago. As a result, a couple of times every year Ghost Dog performs totally untraceable assassinations on behalf of the mobster. But during the latest hit things get complicated, and the plot moves forward from there.

It's quirky to say the least: Ghost Dog's habits and friend(s) are rather unusual, and the random happenings of Ghost Dog's life are interspersed with or interrupt the greater plot often. (This makes the film a character study of the protagonist as much as anything else).

The movie was a hit with fans of The Wu Tang Clan since Jarmusch, ordinarily a (white) B&W indie filmmaker, got the RZA to compose the soundtrack. (Years later he also did the Kill Bill soundtrack and the theme tune for both Afro Samurai intalments.)

Its independent nature prevented it from receiving much attention, but it did receive fairly good praise from critics and has become a rather minor Cult Classic.

"Louie: Jesus, Vinny. You just iced a woman, you know that? Vinny: You know what you are, Louie? You're a fuckin' male chauvinist pig. Louie: What do you mean, I'm a male chauvinist pig? You just shot a broad. Vinny: A cop. I just shot a cop. They wanna be equal? I made her equal."
 * Animal Motifs: a dog appears twice in the film, both times staring directly at Ghost Dog. Ghost Dog is explicitly compared to a bear by Raymond, and kills two hunters who he encounters who have killed a black bear basically because they could; Pearline at the very end has pyjamas on with a bear pattern. There's also Ghost Dog's pigeons.
 * Apologetic Attacker:
 * Avenging the Villain:
 * A Samurai 400 Years Too Late
 * Badass Bookworm: Ghost Dog apparently quite loves to read
 * Badass Longcoat: Ghost Dog
 * Bilingual Bonus: Any dialogue between Ghost Dog and Raymond.
 * Blood From the Mouth:
 * Book Ends
 * Born in the Wrong Century: Just about every gangster and Ghost Dog himself wishes they could live the "old school ways".
 * Brick Joke: The Italian mobster who professes his love for Public Enemy in a seeming throwaway joke... but near the end of the movie is actually seen alone in his house blasting PE and rapping along.
 * Cameo / Actor Allusion: Gary Farmer briefly reprises his role as a pissed-off Native American mystic who lives on a rooftop and is briefly mistaken for Ghost Dog. "Stupid fucking white man!"
 * Contract on the Hitman
 * Cultured Badass: Lets see: Ghost Dog is deeply knowledgeable about and dedicated to the code of Bushido, has a love of everything from classic literature to social rights philosophy to fantasy, he has warrior symbols from multiple cultures in his shack, and raises and trains pigeons.
 * The Don: Ray Vargo, although he seems to care about nothing except his daughter anymore, so the Family is falling apart.
 * Double Standard: Hard to tell if it's being deconstructed or played for very dark laughs. Louie is horrified by a fellow mobster (who seems like bumbling, helpless nice guy) killing an Obstructive Bureaucrat female police officer. The following conversation occurs.
 * Double Standard: Hard to tell if it's being deconstructed or played for very dark laughs. Louie is horrified by a fellow mobster (who seems like bumbling, helpless nice guy) killing an Obstructive Bureaucrat female police officer. The following conversation occurs.

"You shot me in the exact same fucking place as last time!"
 * Dysfunction Junction: The relationship between Ray Vargo and his daughter Louise.
 * Epigraph: The Hagakure is recited by the title character and, in the final scene, by Pearline.
 * Many viewers may assume The Hagakure, a 17th-century guide to the Samurai, is an Encyclopedia Exposita, but is in fact a real book on which the film is (loosely) framed.
 * Face Death with Dignity:
 * Friend to All Living Things: Oh, so, played straight. Ghost Dog has a remarkable way with carrier pigeons. A sparrow even lands on Ghost Dog's sniper rifle and he pauses to admire it before scoping out the mafia hideout.
 * Gonna Fly Now Montage: Ghost Dog's dreamy martial arts meditation/power-up sequence on the rooftop.
 * Go Out with a Smile:
 * Guns Akimbo: Ghost Dog calmly in a subversion of John Woo style.
 * Heroic Bloodshed
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Ghost Dog and Raymond, even though they don't speak the same language.
 * Hitman with a Heart
 * Hit Me Dammit
 * Homeless Pigeon Person
 * Hypocritical Humor: The Italian mobsters' conversation goes off on an incredibly racist tangent about how black guys and Indians continually name themselves after animals... and at the end of the conversation one of them yells for an underling named Sammy the Snake.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills

"...we're from different ancient tribes. And now, we're both almost extinct. Sometimes... you gotta stick with the ancient ways. The old-school ways."
 * I Owe You My Life: played straight.
 * Loners Are Freaks
 * Make It Look Like a Struggle: Ghost Dog does this to Louie twice so that Louie's survival after encountering Ghost Dog won't look suspicious. The first time, Sonny Valerio is still suspicious, regardless. The second time, well....
 * Mauve Shirt: Louie's friend Vinny hangs around in the background, has a few lines, and seems like a nice guy.
 * Mugging the Monster: While passing by an alley, Ghost Dog sees a young man following and about to attack an old Asian man who is carrying groceries. Ghost Dog seems to be considering intervening when the Asian man calmly puts down his groceries, surprises the would-be mugger by kicking him twice in the face, then picks up his groceries and continues on as the mugger leaves.
 * Notable Original Music: the soundtrack composed by RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan.
 * Old School Chivalry: As said by Ghost Dog before ,


 * Also, mentioned that "One good thing about this Ghost Dog guy... he's taking us out in the old way. Like real fucking gangsters."
 * Only a Flesh Wound: What's a bullet or two in the shoulder?
 * Passing the Torch: Ghost Dog bequeaths his copy of the Hagakure to Pearline.
 * Perspective Flip
 * Pop-Cultured Badass: The mafioso rap fan.
 * The Public Domain Channel: Cartoons. So many cartoons.
 * Rashomon Plot: The scene where Ghost Dog's life is spared is seen differently.
 * The book itself turns up in the movie.
 * Rebellious Mafia Princess: Louise Vargo has a rather weird, slightly gothy, slightly Broken Bird rebellious streak going on.
 * Running Gag
 * Ghost Dog only speaks English, his best friend Raymond only speaks French, but they keep saying the same thing.
 * The constant eating of chocolate ice cream.
 * Shout-Out: to Frankenstein, as well as an appearance by Gary Farmer where he calls the gangster who shoots one of his pigeon "stupid fucking white man." Farmer is even credited as "Nobody," the character he played in Jarmusch's previous film Deadman, whose Catch Phrase is "Stupid Fucking White Man".
 * Spiritual Successor: To Deadman. The two films can be taken as part of a thematic series, similar to his early series of films.
 * And to Le Samouraï, (1967) which was also about a Bushido-following assassin.
 * Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Louie wouldn't. Not everyone goes by those rules...
 * Worthy Opponent: