#159: KUROSAWA, Akira: Red Beard (1965)

KUROSAWA, Akira (Japan)

Red Beard [1965]

Spine #159
DVD

A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard 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 director who teaches his 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.

185 minutes
Black & White

Stereo

in Japanese

2:35:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2002

Director/Writers

After the novel by Shûgorô Yamamoto.

Scenario by Ryûzô Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Masato Ide, and Akira Kurosawa.

Kuosawa was 55 when he directed Red Beard.

Other Kurosawa films in the Collection:

Eclipse Series 23: Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
Eclipse Series 23: The Most Beautiful (1944)
Eclipse Series 23: Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (1945)
Eclipse Series 23: The Men Who Tread On The Tiger's Tail (1945)
Eclipse Series 7: No Regrets For Our Youth (1946)

Eclipse Series 7: One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
#413: Drunken Angel (1948)

#233: Stray Dog (1949)
#138: Rashomon (1950)

Eclipse Series 7: Scandal (1950)
Eclipse Series 7: The Idiot (1951)
#221: Ikiru (1952)
#2: Seven Samurai (1954)
Eclipse Series 7: I Live In Fear (1955)

#190: Throne Of Blood (1957)
#239: The Lower Depths (1957)
#116: The Hidden Fortress (1958)

#319: The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
#52: Yojimbo (1961)

#53: Sanjuro (1962)
#24: High And Low (1963)
#465: Dodes'ka-den (1970)
#267: Kagemusha (1980)
#316: Ran (1985)

#842: Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990)

The Film

This is Kurosawa’s 23rd film.

An important film for many reasons — it’s the last film of his “middle period” (ca. post-Occupation [1952] to 1965); Toshirô Mifune (Kyojio Niide [Akahige; Red Beard])’s 16th and final appearance in a Kurosawa film; his final black and white film; his last film of a certain kind of style and visual design (fast cutting dollyshots, etc.) and — like Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai) [1954] {Spine #2} — the last film which would push the limits of what a filmmaker could do to an audience in three hours (185 minutes plus intermission — over 3:05).

“I had something special in mind when I made Red Beard because I wanted to make something so magnificent that people would just have to see it.” — The Emperor and the Wolf, Stuart Galbraith IV, p. 372.

• Production began in 1963 and lasted two years.
• The film cost $700,000 — 10 times the cost of an average Japanese feature at that time.
• Preproduction was long and complicated. Kurosawa insisted on absolute authenticity in all things. Thus, roof tiles had to be aged just so, tea cups — even things stashed away in cupboards that are never opened! Actors and extras slept in their costumes for months before filming to get the right look, etc.
• “To describe the look of Red Beard one should speak of something burnished and glowing, like the body of a fine cello!” — Donald Richie
• Masaru Satô (composer) must have gone out of his mind. Kurosawa seems to have dictated the kind of music he wanted: Brahms here, Haydn there … it’s all a bit too on the mark.
• The best decision of all, however, was to omit music completely from the credit sequence … we just hear soft bird tweeting in the sound design.
• Kurosawa created the Otoyo (Terumi Niki) character to resemble Nelli in Dostoevsky’s The Insulted and the Injured.
• Gradually we meet the main characters:
• Noboru Yasumoto (Yûzô Kayama), the new doctor who has studied in Nagasaki and expects to be appointed as the Shogun’s personal physician …
• Handayu Mori (Yoshio Tsuchiya), not much charisma; Red Beard barely speaks to him …
• Sahachi (Tsutomu Yamazaki), the saintly patient.
• The Mantis (Kyôko Kagawa). Listen to the foreboding wind which introduces her appearance!
• Takashi Shimura’s penultimate 20th appearance in a Kurosawa film! He has only one scene, as a clan retainer who questions whether doctors really do any good … Red Beard ignores him.
• The role of Rokusuke (the great Kamatari Fujiwara) always brings a chuckle. He’s a dying man, and only makes dying noises and has no lines. It’s funny because he was infamous for his inability to memorize dialogue!
• Okuni (the gorgeous Akemi Negishi) is Rokusuke’s estranged daughter. Kurosawa films her scene in one long, continuous take. He mercifully lies to her about her father’s death (watch Yasumoto’s expression!)
• 1:10:35: A deeply moving moment. Red Beard wants Yasumoto to remind him the next time he gets arrogant. Watch Kayama’s face — you can see his growing respect …
• Sahachi’s flashback introduces us to Onaka (Miyuki Kuwano).
• 1:17:00: The earthquake. Kurosawa was 13 when the Kantō earthquake struck on September 1, 1923.
• The scene with The Mantis’s seduction of Yasumoto is one five-minute continuous shot. When the cut finally comes, she is wrapping her obi around him … he is doomed!
• “Surgery of the red hairs.” A Japanese physician who has studied with the Dutch in Nagasaki.
• 1:23:00: Onaka’s suicide is a long four-minute plus take with several axial cuts thrown in and then out as she forces Sahachi to involuntarily assist her …
• 1:31:18: Another awesome composition … a bunched group all in black with Sahachi’s brightly lit dying face shining like a saint!
• 1:33:00: The big turning point in the film; Yasumoto puts on his uniform. Note the wind chime from Sahachi’s story at the end of the long corridor!
• Other minor roles from Kurosawa regulars:
• Goheiji (Eijirô Tôno)
• Clan retainer (Kô Nishimura)
• Brothel madam (Haruko Sugimura, Ozu regular)
• Here’s a detailed look at some unusual filmic punctuation:
• Unusual, because Kurosawa’s most frequent device (other than the straight cut) is the wipe.
• Here, he uses eight dissolves to soften the mood:
• 2:04:19: [diary]: “ … that night she spoke for the first time.” He makes her some soup. She knocks the bowl out of his hand and he cries for her.
• “February 12th. Otoyo was gone again this morning. She wasn’t in the clinic. I went to look for her.”
• Being outside the clinic is unusual enough to merit special attention to the scene. Kurosawa details the scene: as the wind and dust blow, Yasumoto frantically looks for Otoyo as people pass in and out of the frame. He spots her on the bridge, begging for money (this is almost verbatim from the Dostoevsky!) …
• He moves over to get a better look at her, and the left side of the frame captures some fishermen pulling in their net.
• Take a good look at that store that she enters to buy the new bowl. Can you imagine all the detail that went into that set design! And the shot is so distant that you can barely see anything. But you feel it!
• 2:09:22: Yasumoto humbly begs Otoyo for her forgiveness. He worries that she may think that he was angry at her for breaking the bowl — which he was not — but yet he continues to apologize profusely. She lets go of her pain and is transformed!
• dissolve #1
• 2:10:00: The second scene begins with Red Beard reading Yasumoto’s Otoyo diary.
• An interesting parallelism here: just as Yasumoto needlessly continues to apologize to Otoyo, Red Beard now apologizes to Yasumoto for “stealing” his Nagasaki notes and drawings … naturally, the younger doctor is ashamed of his previous behavior.
• dissolve #2
• 2:13:22: Yasumoto is now sick — exhausted — and Otoyo is nursing him back to health — Red Beard’s idea of therapy. She wets a washcloth for his forehead and scampers into a corner when she realizes that he is staring at her.
• dissolve #3
• 2:14:01: Again their eyes meet, but now she doesn’t scurry away, until the intensity becomes too great and she quickly moves to a corner. Here, Kurosawa shines a key light in her eyes in a perfectly composed shot.
• dissolve #4
• 2:15:18: A magical scene. Yasumoto opens his eyes to see Otoyo scrubbing the floor again. It seems as if she has reverted to her previous psychotic behavior — but we are fooled. She is actually very relaxed and cleaning routinely. She opens the window and we see a soft snowfall, which Kurosawa/Satô score with faux-Haydn …
• dissolve #5
• 2:16:43: She adds some snow to melt in the water. They smile at each other.
• dissolve #6
• 2:17:54: He asks for water. He never actually gets any, as Otoyo backs away and seems shy and uncertain, but no longer terrified or “scalded.” Other than his one line, asking for water, this entire sequence is dialogue-free for over eight minutes!
• dissolve #7
• 2:18:56: Another scene borrowed from Dostoevsky, as Otoyo begins to leaf through Yasumoto’s medical texts, unfolding diagrams, curious … he watches all of this silently, as — exhausted — Otoyo keeps dropping off, waking up again, until she finally falls asleep, as does he.
• dissolve #8
• 2:21:01: Yasumoto awakes. Otoyo is sleeping peacefully on his stomach. She awakes. He thanks her for nursing him back to health.
• 152 minutes in, Kurosawa introduces us to a brand new character: little Chobo (nine-year-old Yoshitaka Zushi). Red Beard and Yasumoto disappear for most of the remainder of the film, as Otoyo and Chobo gradually take over the story.
• This kind of grand, non-linear writing will become something of a fixture in his final period films. His next film, Dodes’ka-den (1970) {Spine #465} will feature Zushi in a starring role.
• 2:39:00: The scene of the cooks saving their rice for Chobo is reminiscent of the scene in Seven Samurai where Kyuzo and Katsushiro are saving their rice for the wretched grandmother …
• 2:47:50: A wonderful parallel to a scene near the beginning … the three physicians in their dining room. The last time we saw this set-up, Yasumoto was a cranky, obstinate stuck-up kid! Look at him now! Kurosawa’s characters really do transform before your eyes in a very powerful way, especially in long films like this one where they are so fully developed. Hear the wind again?
• 2:48:29: Beginning with this scene in the pharmacy — where Yasumoto and Mori are grinding herbs — Kurosawa uses very long takes with only three cuts in over eight minutes.
• 2:58:26: The Coda. There is something about the peacefulness of this scene — the incredibly gorgeous sound of birds and nature on the soundtrack; the calm and beauty of the marriage ceremony itself (which we never actually see!); Yasumoto’s new attitude; the beautiful bride Masae (Yôko Naitô) and her sister, Chigusa (Yôko Fujiyama) (Yasumoto is ashamed of his previous attitude towards her). The atmosphere is filled with striking beauty — especially when compared to the dark and dismal look of the clinic.
• Part of the calmness is good casting: Yasumoto’s mother (the great Kinuyo Tanaka) and father (Ozu regular Chishû Ryû) are magnificent actors in very minor parts here.
• The film ends where it began — at the gate of the clinic.
• Three things that conspired to end Kurosawa’s career as a filmmaker:
• Television;
• James Bond movies; and
• Ereki (pop music with electric guitars)

There are 26 wipes in this film, all horizontal (19L/7R).

Film Rating (0-60):

58

The Extras

The Booklet

Eight-page wraparound featuring an essay by Donald Richie.

“Like the hero of Sanshiro Sugata (1943) {Eclipse Series #23}, like the detective in Stray Dog (1949) {Spine #233}, and the shoe manufacturer in High and Low (1963) {Spine #24}, the young doctor learns: Red Beard too is the story of an education. Yasumoto learns that medical theory (illusion) is different from a man dying (reality); that — as the film later reveals — what he had always thought about himself (upright, honest, hard-working) must now be reconciled with what he finds himself to also be (arrogant, selfish, insincere); and, most importantly, that evil itself is the most humanly common thing in this world; that good is uncommon.”

Commentary

By Kurosawa film scholar Stephen Prince.

Indispensable.

For example, the average American viewer will find Otoyo’s situation distressing enough on screen. But in reality, things were actually much worse:

• The mortality records of 21,000 prostitutes in Asakusa who died from 1743 to 1801 show that most died in their 20’s.

Notes

By Japanese-film historian Richie.

Theatrical trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

38

58 + 38 =

96

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