Red Beard (1965)

Original title

赤ひげ

Directed by

Akira Kurosawa

Genre

drama film, Jidaigeki

Country

Japan

Runtime

3h 05m

Rated

M

Rating

8.2 of 10 from 411 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A proud young doctor arrives at a rural clinic run by a gruff veteran physician, Red Beard. He resents the assignment but gradually learns to treat the poor and forgotten patients with compassion.

slow-burncontemplativeearnestmelancholichumanisticvisceralgroundedpoignant

What happens

Red Beard (Japanese: 赤ひげ, Hepburn: Akahige) is a 1965 Japanese period drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, in his last collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune. Based on Shūgorō Yamamoto's 1959 short story collection, Akahige Shinryōtan, the film takes place in Koishikawa, a district of Edo, towards the end of the Tokugawa period (i.e. early or mid-19th century), and is about the relationship between a town doctor and his new trainee. Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Humiliated and Insulted provided the source for a subplot about a young girl, Otoyo (Terumi Niki), who is rescued from a brothel. The film looks at the problem of social injustice and explores two of Kurosawa's favorite topics: humanism and existentialism. A few critics have noted the film to be reminiscent in some ways of Ikiru. It is Kurosawa's last black-and-white film. The film was a major box office success in Japan but is known for having caused a rift between Mifune and Kurosawa, with this being the final collaboration between them after working on 16 films together. The film was screened in competition at the 26th Venice International Film Festival. Toshiro Mifune won a Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his performance in the film. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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