The third edition of Cineclub by MUBI, in collaboration with What’s Culture, centres a timeless, eclectic antihero classic merging samurai, mobster and Blaxploitation genres. Marie-Anne Leuty (she/her) shares how the evening went.
‘Ghost Dog’ was part of MUBI’s spring summer 2024 cinema selection.
Find out what great films MUBI is streaming now and enjoy a 60 day free trial via TQTB.
This article, in collaboration with MUBI, features in Journal 003, Advocates + Allies – coming February 2025.
“Power and equality.”
“Always see everything, my brother.”
The eight-word exchange between RZA and Ghost Dog summarises the key themes of Jim Jarmusch’s 1999 cult classic feature – a timeless celebration of understanding and friendship beyond language; of duality, honour and the importance of learning.
For the third edition of the Cineclub, global streaming platform MUBI teamed up with What’s Culture to present Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.
The screening at Melkweg in Amsterdam, introduced by Kriticos, creator of The Book Club and What’s Culture Founder Jamal Jama, brought together an audience bridging race and culture to watch a movie telling the age old story of the loved yet misunderstood outsider through the marriage of Asian martial arts and hip hop.
Looking around the intimate cinema, it’s clear to see the film’s impact and influence spans generations.
Blending the eclectic samurai epic, Italian mob and Blaxploitation genres, Ghost Dog tells the story of its eponymous anti-hero, a highly skilled, solitary assassin employed by the Mafia hitman who saved his life.
The combination of diverse genres cements Ghost Dog’s status as a moment that fuses themes from identity and cultural connection to duty and retaining self-control in a world that makes choices on your behalf.
As a first-time viewer, I couldn’t help but be entirely absorbed.
The tone for the evening was set with an introduction from the hosts, framed by a looping montage of iconic visuals from the title film.
It also included classic excerpts from the fusion hip hop/martial arts genre with references from cinema, animation and music videos: Afro Samurai, Romeo Must Die, The Boondocks, Kendrick Lamar’s N95 and SZA’s Doves in the Wind to name a few.
The montage was a visual odyssey through culture, capturing the audience’s attention who took photos and recorded the loop on their phones.
I don’t think I was the only person watching diligently to pick out the seminal scenes from the genre, waiting intently for the next loop to come around to revisit them.
Kriticos elaborates on the merging of these worlds.
“RZA from Wu-Tang Clan, the producer of the film’s score, loves to see how Asian martial arts and hip hop marry together through different mediums with this film, its soundtrack and music videos.
“It’s a beautiful example of how ancient cultures, mediums and ideologies combine in an accessible and contemporary context.”
“Ghost Dog brings together different influences, eras and cultures and blends them together into something new,” says Jamal.
“It takes inspiration from films like Le Samouraï, its hip hop score, fourteen inter titles cut throughout the movie from ‘The Book of the Samurai’…
“When we share these stories through MUBI and What’s Culture, we want to explore the ways these worlds come together through cultural exchange.”
The influence of learning through literature in Ghost Dog’s storyline runs deep.
As Kriticos points out:
“The film shows a lot of respect for books and book lovers.
“Titles such as the Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X, The Souls of Black People by WEB Du Bois, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.”
Guests at the screening each received a reading list card, along with MUBI subscription vouchers, to refer back to and discover the titles for themselves.
The most prominent title is Hagakure, or The Book of the Samurai, the warrior code penned by samurai Yamamoto Tsumentomo.
Framing each scene change, the book is a contemplation on the warrior’s constant awareness of death.
The film’s opening lines, the first of the inter titles taken from the seventeenth century text, establish the mindset and path of our anti-hero, Ghost Dog, played by Forest Whitaker.
“The Way of the Samurai is found in death. Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords. Being carried away by surging waves […] And every day, without fail, one should consider himself as dead. This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai.”
This poetic lesson is amplified by the film’s era-defining soundtrack.
It could only have been produced by Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA.
As Jamal explains:
“Producer of most of the Staten Island outfit’s material, RZA studied Chan Buddhism and taught himself martial arts by watching kung fu films.
“When he met Shi Yan Ming, a Shaolin Temple warrior monk in the mid 1990s, it became his way of life.
“Yan Ming also counts Jarmusch as a former student.”
The score carries the viewer immediately, moving you with a gliding grace that transports you to the migrant, multicultural heart of a New Jersey backdrop. It complements Ghost Dog’s purposeful yet light footed pace walking through the neighbourhood, reflecting the rhythm of a man with clear understanding of his goal.
The movie begins with aerial shots of Jersey City where most of the movie was shot (though the neighbourhood is never named in the dialogue).
Intercut with shots of a pigeon soaring through the sky, we first meet Ghost Dog reading and meditating in his rooftop home at dusk where he takes care of a roost of homing pigeons.
The carrier pigeons are his means of communicating daily with his client, Louie, played by John Tormey, enabling him to maintain a solitary life of reflection, study and discipline in between his assignments.
Though Ghost Dog is a solitary figure, we see how his community recognises and values him.
Given the space to be himself, his closest friendship is with Raymond, played by Isaach de Bankolé who also features in Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) and The Limits of Control (2009) amongst others.
The local ice cream seller speaks only French while the protagonist only speaks English.
Reflecting the migrant community they live in, the two friends communicate in ways that work for them. They don’t let a language barrier get in the way of their connection.
Reading context and understanding cultural nuance, when it comes to conversation they often talk about the same topics in their respective tongue. They also communicate through chess, the games played out on the ice cream truck’s counter top last for days and create a kind of ritual for them.
The relationship, the closest form of companionship that we see in Ghost Dog’s life, is based on an underlying respect that transcends language.
Ghost Dog speaks to the idea of duality and balance. An honourable man navigating dishonourable circumstances, the protagonist understands the cause and effect of the events, circumstances and actions in his life to which he needs to respond.
In the midst of so much chaos, his secret power is to look inwards to find his peace and restore balance wherever possible.
Jarmusch’s era defining film dissects themes close to the hearts of many people fighting for their identity in a world that chooses not to recognise them.
To quote The Book of the Samurai:
“It is said that what is called the Spirit of an Age is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world’s coming to an end. In the same way, a single year does not have just spring or summer. A single day, too, is the same. For this reason, although one would like to change today’s world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation.”
After the screening, MUBI treated us to a selection of drinks to close the night. We sat in the Melkweg bar as guests shared their experiences and reflected on the film.
I asked Jamal how the screening was for him.
“When we selected tonight’s movie, we wanted to share something timeless,” he explains.
“Twenty five years since its release, Ghost Dog remains as relevant and urgent today as it did at the turn of the millennium and continues to capture audiences’ imaginations.
“It ultimately tells the story of the human condition; I’m happy to see that it resonates with people of all backgrounds.”
‘Ghost Dog’ was part of MUBI’s spring summer 2024 cinema selection.
Find out what great films MUBI is streaming now and enjoy a 60 day free trial via TQTB.
This article, in collaboration with MUBI, features in Journal 003, Advocates + Allies – coming February 2025.
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Follow MUBI: @mubi @mubinederland
Follow What’s Culture: @whatsculture
