The Idiot (1951 film)
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| The Idiot | |
|---|---|
 Original Japanese poster. |
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| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Produced by | Takashi Koide |
| Written by | Akira Kurosawa Eijirō Hisaita Fyodor Dostoevsky (novel) |
| Starring | Setsuko Hara Yoshiko Kuga Toshiro Mifune Masayuki Mori Takashi Shimura |
| Music by | Fumio Hayasaka |
| Cinematography | Toshio Ubukata |
| Editing by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Distributed by | Shochiku |
| Release date(s) |  May 23, 1951 April 30, 1963 |
| Running time | 166 min |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Idiot (白痴 Hakuchi?) is a 1951 Japanese film by director Akira Kurosawa. It is based on a Fyodor Dostoevsky novel of the same name. Hakuchi was shot in black and white at an aspect ratio of 1.37:1. It was Kurosawa's second film for the Shochiku studio, after the previous year's Scandal. Originally intended to be a two-part film with a running time of 265 minutes, Hakuchi was severely cut by the studio, against Kurosawa's wishes, after a single poorly-received screening of the full-length version. The director's cut has never been released, and thus the theatrical release is a 166 minute cut omitting 100 minutes. According to renowned Japanese film scholar Donald Richie, there are no existing prints of the original 265 minute version. Kurosawa would return to Shochiku forty years later to make Rhapsody in August, and, according to Alex Cox, is said to have searched the Shochiku archives for the original cut of Hakuchi, to no avail.
Speaking about the film and about Dostoevsky, Kurosawa said:
- "Of all my films, people wrote to me most about this one... ...I had wanted to make The Idiot long before Rashomon. Since I was little I've liked Russian literature, but I find that I like Dostoevsky the best and had long thought that this book would make a wonderful film. He is still my favourite author, and he is the one — I still think — who writes most honestly about human existence."[1]
[edit] External links
- The Idiot 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 | |
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