Red Beard
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| 赤ひげ Red Beard |
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| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Produced by | Ryuzo Kikushima Tomoyuki Tanaka |
| Written by | Masato Ide Ryuzo Kikushima Akira Kurosawa Hideo Oguni |
| Starring | Toshirô Mifune Yuzo Kayama |
| Release date(s) | April 1965 (Japan) |
| Running time | 185 min. |
| Language | Japanese |
| IMDb profile | |
- For other uses, see Red Beard (disambiguation)
Red Beard is the English title for 赤ひげ (Akahige), a 1965 feature film by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. The film takes place in Edo (the former name of the city of Tokyo) in 19th century Japan.
Red Beard was adapted from a novel by Shugoro Yamamoto. Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Insulted and the Injured provides a major subplot about a young girl, Otoyo (Terumi Niki), who is rescued from a brothel. Kurosawa also draws upon Dostoevsky for his film The Idiot. Red Beard looks at the problem of social injustice and explores two of Kurosawa's favourite topics: existential humanism and existentialism.
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[edit] Plot
Young Dr. Noboru Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama) is the film's protagonist. Trained in Dutch medical schools, the arrogant Yasumoto aspires to the status of personal physician of the Shogunate. For Yasumoto's post-graduate medical training, he has been assigned to a rural clinic under the guidance of Akahige ("Red Beard"), Dr. Kyojio Niide (played by Toshiro Mifune). Dr. Niide may seem like a tyrannical task master, but in reality he is a compassionate clinic director. Initially, Yasumoto is livid at his posting, believing that he has little to gain from working under Akahige.
Dr. Yasumoto feels that Dr. Niide is only interested in his medical notes and soon rebels against the clinic director. He refuses to wear his uniform, disdains the food and spartan environment, and enters the forbidden garden where he meets "The Mantis" (Kyoko Kagawa), a mysterious patient that only Dr. Niide can treat.
Through his observations of Dr. Niide's compassion and a series of destitute patients, Dr. Yasumoto learns what being a doctor really means. The lives of patients are more important than wealth or status. Their suffering can be ameliorated with compassion and conscientious care.
[edit] Cast
- Toshiro Mifune - Dr. Kyojio Niide, Akahige ("Red Beard")
- Yuzo Kayama - Dr. Noboru Yasumoto
- Kyoko Kagawa - "The Mantis" or "Madwoman"
- Terumi Niki - Otoyo
[edit] Details and trivia
- Red Beard is 185 minutes long and was shot at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It was Kurosawa's first film to make use of a magnetic 4-track stereo soundtrack.
- This is the last film by Kurosawa in which Toshiro Mifune appeared.
- This film also marked the end of black-and-white filming by Kurosawa.
- Principal photography took two years.
- Period construction of the hospital went as far as to use the right kind of aged wood that would have been used in the region at the time the film is set, per Kurosawa's request.
- According to the DVD commentary by film scholar Stephen Prince, this is the only Akira Kurosawa film to feature nudity, in a scene where doctors operate on a woman without the use of anesthetics.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Red Beard at the Internet Movie Database
| Japanese Cinema |  |
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| Films directed by Akira Kurosawa | ||
| 1940s | Sanshiro Sugata | The Most Beautiful | Sanshiro Sugata Part II | The Men Who Tread On the Tiger's Tail | Those Who Make Tomorrow | No Regrets for Our Youth | One Wonderful Sunday | Drunken Angel | The Quiet Duel | Stray Dog | |
|---|---|---|
| 1950s | Scandal | Rashomon | The Idiot | Ikiru | Seven Samurai | I Live in Fear | Throne of Blood | The Lower Depths | The Hidden Fortress | |
| 1960s | The Bad Sleep Well | Yojimbo | Sanjuro | High and Low | Red Beard | |
| 1970s | Dodesukaden | Dersu Uzala | |
| 1980s | Kagemusha | Ran | |
| 1990s | Dreams | Rhapsody in August | Madadayo | |
