Ronin (1998)

Michael Lonsdale: Jean-Pierre

Photos 

Quotes 

• Jean-Pierre : At the end of the day we are likely to be punished for our kindnesses.

• [Sam looks at Jean-Pierre's model] 

  Jean-Pierre : The Forty-Seven Ronin. Do you know it?

  [Sam shakes his head] 

  Jean-Pierre : Forty-seven samurai, whose master was betrayed and killed by another lord. They became ronin, masterless samurai, disgraced by another man's treachery. For three years they plotted, pretending to be thieves, mercenaries, even madmen. That, I didn't have time to do. And then one night they struck, slipping into the castle of their lord's betrayer, killing him.

  Sam : Nice. I like that. My kind of job.

  Jean-Pierre : There's something more. All forty-seven of them committed seppuku. Ritual suicide, in the courtyard of the castle.

  Sam : Well, that I don't like so much.

  Jean-Pierre : But you understand it?

  Sam : What do you mean, I understand it?

  Jean-Pierre : The warrior code. The delight in the battle, you understand that, yes? But also something more. You understand there is something outside yourself that has to be served. And when that need is gone, when belief has died, what are you? A man without a master.

  Sam : Right now I'm a man without a paycheck.

  Jean-Pierre : The ronin could have hired themselves to new masters. They could have fought for themselves. But they chose honor. They chose myth.

  Sam : They chose wrong.

• Jean-Pierre : [in his modeling workshop]  My hobby. One grows old.

  Sam : I knew a lot of fellas, friends of mine, that just wanted to live to open a bar.

  Jean-Pierre : Had they lived, would they have done it?

  [Sam shrugs] 

  Jean-Pierre : Then they were spared their disillusion.

• Vincent : We need some information. We're looking for some people in Paris.

  Jean-Pierre : Who?

  Vincent : An Irish man and a woman, and a German, ex-KGB. They're professionals, and they're in hiding.

  Jean-Pierre : This is really important to you?

  Vincent : He saved my life.