Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai

Stranger Than Paradise and Down by Law are films from the 1980s, with which American director Jim Jarmusch portrayed the bleak sense of life of that decade. He did so in a understated style, often in black-and-white and with the necessary equally understated humour. In the 1990s he made, among others, the western Dead Man and Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai. For the latter, he was inspired by Akira Kurosawa's famous samurai film Rashomon. The lead role is played by Forest Whitaker, camera work is by Robby Müller, while RZA is responsible for the hip-hop soundtrack.

Ghost Dog (Whitaker) is an assassin guided by the principles and codes of honour of the legendary Japanese samurai. No one knows who he is, as he communicates only by pigeon mail. After the murder of a gangster, other gangsters decide that Ghost Dog must be eliminated. They set out to find all the carrier pigeons in the city.