Red Beard - Criterion Collection
by Akira Kurosawa
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Miyuki Kuwano, Reiko Dan, Toshir? Mifune, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Yuzo KayamaDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Brand: Image Entertainment
Producer: Akira Kurosawa
Writer: Akira Kurosawa
Producer: Ryuzo Kikushima
Writer: Ryuzo Kikushima
Writer: Hideo Oguni
Writer: Masato Ide
Writer: Shugoro Yamamoto
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 185 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-07-16
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Home Vision Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Red Beard - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: A traditional Japanese lesson in "on" (gratitude)
Summary: 5 Stars
Akahige ("Red Beard") is easy to overlook because it is not a Kurosawa "samurai film" like his more popular "Seven Samurai", "Sanjuuroh", "Yohjimboh", etc. While Mifune plays a tough character, he has no cut-'em-up action scenes as in "Sanjuuroh" or "Samurai Rebellion."
What makes this film worth the three-hour running time? While it can run perilously close to schmaltz when dealing with the sad condition of the poor patients, the story is fundamentally compelling. It begins with Yasumoto, a cocky graduate of a Dutch medical school in Nagasaki, going to an interview at Dr. Niide's clinic for the poor. The doctor he is to replace leads him on a tour of the facilities and paints a grim picture of the clinic and Dr. Niide himself, a purported tyrannical dictator called "Akahige" (literally Red Beard). Yasumoto takes this at face value, and he voices his disgust at the rank odor his guide tells him is the smell of the poor ("They smell like rotten fruit"). As the story unfolds we see that Yasumoto is a self-pitying spoiled brat. He has just suffered the heartbreak of being jilted by the daughter of the prominent Nomura family with ties to the Shogunate. He thinks he was sent to the clinic by the Nomura family to silence him and hide the shame of the broken engagement from public. Yasumoto suspects Akahige's interest in his notes on Western medecine is an attempt to steal his medical secrets. He decides he will behave so badly that Akahige will send him away, and only then will he be able to pursue his dream of becoming the Shogun's physician. He intentionally disobeys the strict orders to wear the clinic uniform, abstain from alcohol, and to work diligently to ease the tremendous burden of cases born by his colleague, Dr. Mori, and Akahige.
As the story progresses Yasumoto learns that things are not as they seemed, and he grows up as he learns to take his eyes off his own suffering and to look to the needs of others. Akahige does not upbraid him as he expected, and the so-called tyrant even saves Yasumoto's life when he is nearly entrapped by a psychotic beauty who temporarily escaped confinement at the clinic. Yasumoto's first house call with Akahige to a brothel yields his first patient, a 12-year old girl being forced into prostitution by the old madame. His job to help heal the physical and psychological condition of the girl is more than the young doctor can handle, and he cries tears of frustration that his patient won't accept his help. He marvels at the patience shown by the seemingly stoic Akahige, and the latter's compassion for the sick begins to grow on him. He decides to shed his sword and fine clothes (marks of his superior rank), wear the clinic uniform and perform his duties alongside Akahige and Mori.
Yasumoto dives into his work to the point of exhaustion, and now Akahige prescribes Yasumoto's care to his patient. The girl heals as she abandons her cynical caution and practices on-gaeshi (repayment of kindness out of gratitude). The formerly high and mighty young doctor is now in the position of having to rely on the care of a poor, dirty girl in tattered clothes. (Akahige mutters "ase-kusai" ["it reeks of sweat in here"] when his visits Yasumoto's room, and it reminds us that the cocky Yasumoto remarked at how the poor patients stunk when he first arrived at the clinic.) Both learn to accept each other's help in healing.
Yasumoto also learns that he was not a victim of injustice as he'd thought. He was not sent to the clinic as punishment or as a trick by the Nomura family to keep him quiet. On the contrary, they were working to get him appointed as the Shogun's doctor. Not only that, the family rejected the daughter who jilted him because they took the engagement as seriously as he did. His former fiancee's younger sister offers herself to be Yasumoto's wife to preserve the family honor and allow her sister back into the fold. Now that he is no longer a self-centered victim but both the giver and receiver of gracious treatment, Yasumoto determines to stay at the clinic and work for the betterment of the poor rather than take the path to fame and fortune with the Shogunate. Akahige calls him a fool for throwing away his opportunity for a better life, but Yasumoto shows he can be as headstrong as his mentor in his determination to do good.
I first rented this film on VHS over 15 years ago, and I was impressed with the quality of the Criterion Collection restoration. The sound and picture quality are excellent. This is the edition to own.
Summary of Red Beard - Criterion Collection
A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard (Akahige) chronicles the tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a compassionate clinic director. Toshiro Mifune, in his last role for Kurosawa, gives a powerhouse performance as the dignified yet empathic director who guides his pupil to maturity, teaching the embittered intern to appreciate the lives of his destitute patients. Perfectly capturing the look and feel of 19th-century Japan, Kurosawa weaves a fascinating tapestry of time, place, and emotion.Featuring the final collaboration between esteemed director Akira Kurosawa (Kagemusha, The Seven Samurai) and actor Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo, Hell in the Pacific), this 1965 film explores the complex and tumultuous relationship between a doctor and his prot?g?, and the meaning of compassion and responsibility. Mifune plays the title character, a revered but stern and unbendable physician ministering to the poor in a clinic, driven by a sense of calling to the profession of medicine and to mankind. He is assigned a young brash intern whose rebellious and arrogant attitude threaten to disrupt the hospital and destroy his burgeoning career. Under the intense tutelage of the relentlessly stern doctor, however, the young doctor in training goes from a spoiled wunderkind insulted at having to work at a clinic he thinks is beneath him, to one who appreciates the compassionate nature of a doctor's calling. A long, intimate, and engrossing film, it displays some of Mifune's finest work as a man whose profound sense of higher purpose touches all around him. An earnest exploration of duty and honor, Red Beard is an unlikely but worthy addition to the enduring legacy of Akira Kurosawa. --Robert Lane
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