Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

Timing: 1:56 (116 min)

7.324/10
1146

7.744/10
43972

7.5/10
104000

All about film

Video 13

Photo 52

Actors and characters

Release date

1999-10-06

Country

France, Germany, Japan, United States

Production

StudioCanal, Canal+, Film4 Productions, ARD, ARD Degeto, JVC, Pandora Film, Degeto Film, Plywood Productions, Bac Films, Le Studio Canal+

Genre

Crime, Drama

Budget

$2 000 000

Revenue

$9 421 594

Website

Director

Jim Jarmusch

Actors

Forest Whitaker, John Tormey, Cliff Gorman, Frank Minucci, Richard Portnow, Tricia Vessey, Henry Silva, Gene Ruffini, Frank Adonis, Victor Argo
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Jim Jarmusch

Producer

Jim Jarmusch, Richard Guay

Operator

Robby Müller

Composer

RZA

Artist

Audition

Ellen Lewis, Laura Rosenthal, Jeanne McCarthy

Editing

Jay Rabinowitz, Victor De Jesus, Lonnie Kandel
All team (176)

• The character “Nobody” is played by Gary Farmer. Farmer also played the same character in the film “Dead Man,” and delivers the same line: “Stupid fucking white man.”
• The club that Ghost Dog drives up to before stealing clothes is called "Liquid Sword." "Liquid Swords" is the title of The GZA's first album, produced by RZA, who also wrote the original soundtrack to the film and played a camouflage-clad samurai in the finale.
• Ghost Dog and Louie have differing recollections of their first meeting. This is a reference to Akira Kurosawa's film "Rashomon," in which people give different accounts of the same event.
• The quotes in the film are taken from Yamamoto Tsunetomo's book "Hagakure: The Way of the Samurai."
• Each time Ghost Dog gets into a car, he turns on music and sets the volume to 21.
• The heroine watches the "Itchy & Scratchy" cartoon several times in the car, which is an "in-universe" cartoon from "The Simpsons" and was never a standalone work.
• When Ghost Dog speaks with the gangsters, he says his name is “Bob Solo”—a combination of the names of two characters played by Harrison Ford: “Bob Falfa” (from *American Graffiti*) and “Han Solo” (from *Star Wars*).
• The scene in which Ghost Dog shoots the gangster through the plumbing was taken from Seijun Suzuki’s film *Branded to Kill*.
• Ghost Dog shoots Frank first in the stomach, then in the chest, and finally in the head. These shots are reminiscent of seppuku—a Japanese ritual suicide in which the first strike with a knife or sword is to the stomach, the second to the chest, and then the person committing suicide lowers their head, and an assistant decapitates them.
• The character of Nobody is played by Gary Farmer. Farmer also played the identically named character in the film "Dead Man." Moreover, he delivers the same line: "Stupid fucking white man."
• The club that Ghost Dog drives up to before stealing clothes is called Liquid Sword. This is the title of GZA's first album, which was produced by RZA, who also wrote the original soundtrack to the film and played the camouflage-clad samurai in the finale.
• The protagonist watches the cartoon "Itchy & Scratchy Show" several times in the car, which is an internal cartoon within the series "The Simpsons" and has never been a separate work.
• When Ghost Dog talks to the gangsters, he says his name is Bob Solo – a combination of the names of two characters played by Harrison Ford – Bob Falfa (from "American Graffiti") and Han Solo (from "Star Wars").
• The scene in which Ghost Dog shoots the gangster through the plumbing pipe is taken from Seijun Suzuki's film "Born to Kill."
• The character of Nobody is played by Gary Farmer. Farmer also played the identically named character in the film 'Dead Man'. Moreover, he utters the same phrase: 'Stupid fucking white man'.
• The heroine watches the 'Itchy & Scratchy' cartoon several times in the car, which is an internal cartoon within the 'Simpsons' series and has never been a standalone work.
• When Ghost Dog talks to the gangsters, he says his name is Bob Solo – a combination of the names of two characters played by Harrison Ford – Bob Falfa (from 'American Graffiti') and Han Solo (from 'Star Wars').
• The scene where Ghost Dog shoots the gangster through the water pipe is taken from Seijun Suzuki's film 'Branded to Kill'.