Film Review "Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai"

“Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai”

It is one of those films which are not easy to pigeonhole. Past, present, realism and mysticism create a mixture which will keep you enchanted.
Forest Whitaker plays Ghost Dog, the assassin who works for mafia and trying to live by an ancient Japanese warrior code. When one of Ghost Dog's contract murders goes wrong and the boss’ daughter is a witness, her father decides that he must have the killer “neutralized’’ to save his face.   The hitman is now forced to defend himself from not the same Mob we know from other movies. It is more like a club for ageing Italians who live in America and refuse to see that times have moved on, pretending that they still are back in 70’s.
The fact that “Ghost Dog” is so wry about mixing old and new makes it unusual. The director, Jim Jarmusch seems to play with our imagination in a masterly fashion. Well, nobody in the right mind would believe that story. The old mafia guys discuss hip-hop, everyone watches cartoons. And there is a friendship of the main character’s best friend, ice-cream maker, who speaks only French with Ghost Dog. Our assassin does not understand a word in French but relation doesn’t seem to be affected from it. But what makes “Ghost Dog” at the same time: funny but not idiotic, wise not clever-clever? It is its ability to understand and appreciate the myths of all kinds of cultures, from ancient to postmodern.
To sum up, thanks to Whitaker we can meet unique character which in comparison with a bit surrealistic world created by Jim Jarmusch and great, prepared by RZA soundtrack, cannot be left unseen.