Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Directed by Jim Jarmusch
Starring Forest Whitaker, John Tormey, Henry Silva

Jim Jarmusch’s 90s cult crime drama is a superbly sharp, unique thriller featuring a magnificent lead performance from Forest Whitaker in an iconoclastic mix of hip-hop, gangster movie and martial arts.

Ghost Dog (Whitaker) lives above the world, alongside a flock of birds, in a homemade shack on the roof of an abandoned building. Guided by the words of an ancient samurai text, Ghost Dog is a professional killer able to dissolve into the night and move through the city unnoticed.

When Ghost Dog’s code is dangerously betrayed by the dysfunctional mafia family that occasionally employs him, he reacts strictly in accord with the Way of the Samurai. In Ghost Dog’s words, “We’re like two ancient tribes, both almost extinct… and everything seems to be changing around us”.