Призрак пса: Путь самурая

1999 film by Jim Jarmusch

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a 1999 crime drama film written, produced and directed by Jim Jarmusch. Forest Whitaker stars as the title character. The cast also features Cliff Gorman, Henry Silva, Isaach de Bankolé, Victor Argo and Camille Winbush. It was an international co production between the United States, France, Germany and Japan, the film premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. The film opened to largely positive critical reception, with several critics noting similarities between the film and Jean Pierre Melville's 1967 film Le Samouraï, and was nominated for both an Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and a César Award for Best Foreign Film.

The mysterious "Ghost Dog", a hitman in the employ of the Mafia, who follows the ancient code of the samurai as outlined in the book of Yamamoto Tsunetomo's recorded sayings, Hagakure.

Ghost Dog sees himself as a retainer of Louie, a local mobster, who saved Ghost Dog's life years earlier. While living as a hitman for the American Mafia, he adheres to the code of the samurai, and interprets and applies the wisdom of the Hagakure. Louie tells Ghost Dog to kill a gangster, Handsome Frank, who is sleeping with the daughter of local mafia boss Vargo. Ghost Dog arrives and kills the gangster, before seeing that the girl is also in the room; he leaves her alive. To avoid being implicated in the murder of a made man, Vargo and his associate Sonny Valerio decide to get rid of Ghost Dog. Louie knows practically nothing about Ghost Dog, as the hitman communicates only by homing pigeon. The mobsters start by tracing all the pigeon coops in town. They find Ghost Dog's cabin atop a building and kill his pigeons. Ghost Dog realizes he must kill Vargo and his men or they will kill him and his master. During the day, Ghost Dog frequently visits the park to see his best friend, a French speaking ice cream man named Raymond. Ghost Dog does not understand French and Raymond does not understand English but the two nonetheless seem to connect with each other. Ghost Dog also befriends a little girl named Pearline, to whom he lends the book Rashōmon. Eventually, Ghost Dog invades Vargo's mansion and kills almost everyone single handedly, sparing only Louie and Vargo's daughter. That night, Ghost Dog kills Sonny Valerio at his home by shooting him through a pipe. Ghost Dog expects that Louie will attack him, as he feels that Louie is obliged to avenge the murder of his boss Vargo. He goes to the park and gives Raymond all his money, helping him to stay in the country. Pearline appears and gives back Rashōmon to Ghost Dog, saying that she liked it. Ghost Dog gives Pearline his copy of Hagakure and encourages her to read it. Though Louie feels some loyalty to Ghost Dog, he finally confronts him at Raymond's ice cream stand with Raymond and Pearline watching. Ghost Dog is unwilling to attack his master and allows Louie to kill him. His last act is to give Louie the copy of Rashōmon and encourage him to read it. Pearline takes Ghost Dog's empty gun and aims at Louie as he flees. Ghost Dog dies peacefully with Raymond and Pearline at his side; Louie gets into a car with Vargo's daughter (who now has replaced her father as his boss). Later, Pearline reads the Hagakure.

In a 2000 interview with Peter Bowen of Filmmaker, Jarmusch referred to the violence in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai as "simply a reflection of the history of human beings." Regarding the multiple instances in which the gangster characters or their associates watch cartoons, Jarmusch added: "As for the cartoons, it is another layer, resonance, or nuance of things. They are echoes of things happening in the story. What I don't like is that some people have said that the cartoons are there because the gangsters are very cartoon like. I just like cartoons, and I like the idea of adults watching cartoons." The endings share a key similarity. The peculiar relationship between the protagonists of both movies and birds, as companions and danger advisers, is another common theme. The film contains a number of references to Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill, such as when a bird lands in front of Ghost Dog's rifle scope, referencing the incident with a butterfly in Suzuki's film. Ghost Dog shooting Sonny Valerio up the drain pipe is taken from Branded to Kill.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai was shot mostly in Jersey City, New Jersey, but the movie never mentions where the story is set. License plates reveal it is in "The Industrial State" and a vehicle from another state has on its license plate "The Highway State", both of which are fictional state nicknames.

The film's score and soundtrack is the first produced by the Wu Tang Clan's RZA. US and Japanese versions of the soundtrack album have been released, each with a different set of tracks. The Japanese release also has some songs not in the film. Songs in the film that don't appear on either soundtrack album include From Then Till Now performed by Killah Priest, Armagideon Time performed by Willi Williams, Nuba One performed by Andrew Cyrille and Jimmy Lyons and Cold Lampin With Flavor performed by Public Enemy.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai grossed a worldwide total of $9,380,473, of which $3,308,029 was in the United States.

Critical response to the film was largely positive. On the Rotten Tomatoes review site, the film has an 82% rating, based on reviews from 95 critics. The website's critical consensus was that the movie is "[a]n innovative blend of samurai and gangster lifestyles." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 67 based on 31 critics' reviews. J. Hoberman of The Village Voice described it as "an impeccably shot and sensationally scored deadpan parody of two current popular modes", namely hitman and mafia films. and the Palme d'Or award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Feature at the 16th Independent Spirit Awards.