Red Beard (1965)

As good a director as he was, Kurosawa sometimes let his keenness to get a point across undermine the quality of his films. This is the case with Red Beard, a picture best known for being the last in a long line of collaborations with actor Toshiro Mifune.

Kurosawa typically had a kind of mission statement with every film he made. During his 1960's output he appears to have become increasingly stubborn and obsessive in making a film for a reason. In the case of Red Beard, he was appalled at the number of poor quality ultra-violent Samurai flicks being churned out in the wake of his own recent action pictures, Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1963). As a backlash he decided to make a period picture with a peaceful, non-action theme, more of a pure drama. Furthermore, in an abandonment of the cynicism which had marked all his films from The Bad Sleep Well (1960) onwards, he declared that Red Beard was to be "a tribute to the goodness in humanity". There is nothing wrong with this is a basis for a film – it's just that Kurosawa tries too hard.

Kurosawa was, or at least had been a director who handled emotional moments with skill. Consider for example the terminally ill hero in Ikiru (1952) drunkenly singing in the bar, or Kikuchiyo rescuing the baby in Seven Samurai (1954). Bearing these past triumphs in mind it's almost painful to see how he fails completely to achieve the same effect in Red Beard. Here the audience is practically bombarded with moments of strained poignancy. There is absolutely no subtlety, as one heavy-handed sob story after another is cranked out.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that Red Beard is structured as a series of short stories with the same setting, as patients come and go at the hospital. It's really very difficult to share any feeling with the characters because we never really get to know them – we just hear about their past misery. Whenever characters cry (which happens all the time), it's difficult for the audience to connect to them. Eventually all the stories of grief and woe just start to sound ridiculous.

Of course, there is one overarching storyline, that of the young doctor Yasumoto's transformation from being a selfish snob who resents having to treat poor people, to a dedicated professional who takes satisfaction in his work. This is for me the most satisfying and engaging part of the plot. The most uplifting moment in the film is when Yasumoto wears his uniform for the first time, and is immediately greeted with greater respect from both colleagues and patients.

And, in spite of his poor judgement with the plot, Kurosawa's direction is still of good standard and there are plenty of marks of quality. He matches the warm, sensitive tone of the film with a delicate approach to his shot composition, and a slow and measured pace to each scene. In the first half of the film, he shows Yasumoto's feelings about having to work at the clinic by shooting the interiors in such a way that they appear cramped and confining. When Yasumoto dons his uniform the spaces begin to open out and a little more light is let in. There's also a sly nod towards Kurosawa and Mifune's earlier pictures in the film's only real action sequence. It's choreographed just like the frantic arm-chopping scene from Yojimbo, but rather than drawing a sword Mifune is instead twisting limbs and cracking bones in a completely bloodless fight.

It's a pity that this was Mifune's swansong with Kurosawa, not just

Fmovies: "Red Beard" is the noble conclusion to Kurosawa's monochrome period which undoubtedly contained his finest work. Although there were beautifully choreographed action scenes still to come in "Kagemusha" and "Ran", nothing was quite the same after this quiet meditation on the stirrings of humanity in a dark and otherwise uncaring world. The period is early 19th century, the place a hospital for the socially impoverished run by a doctor who manages to combine idealism and pragmatism, the two essential ingredients needed to facilitate the emergence of enlightenment. Although the great Toshiro Mifune dominates the film as the hospital head, it is the effect of his presence on the young doctor who pays him a visit that is the main theme of the narrative. Yasumoto, selfish and ambitious, has no intention to begin with of devoting his services to the hospital but one by one his defences collapse as he learns from the example of an idealist who has shed all vestiges of selfishness. There are constant reminders that medicine was at a rudimentary stage in its development and of the dedication needed by pioneers at a time when most answers still remained unknown and everything was largely a matter of easing rather than curing. I would not claim that "Red Beard" is among Kurosawa's half dozen greatest works. At just over three hours it sprawls in a discursive way. A lengthy flashback of a dying patient's reasons for seeking a form of absolution rather impedes the narrative flow in spite of some impressive visuals of snowscapes and an earthquake. But then the structure of the whole film rather has the episodic quality of a soap opera where momentum is maintained by proceeding from one crisis to another. Nevertheless it is full of wonderfully contrasted sequences from the knockabout humour of Mifune applying his medical skills to warding off a group of assailants by breaking their limbs like matchsticks to the tender scene of the young doctor being nursed back from sickness by the girl rescued from enslavement in a brothel. And then there is the rain. Where would a Kurosawa film be without those torrential downpours to remind us of the physical discomfiture that a journey towards enlightenment entails.

First of all let me say that this film is a real tear jerker. If you want to see a film that talks about compassion then you are going to want to see this film. In a world where pettiness abounds to see the big-hearted nature of the main characters and how such compassion literally changes people for the better -- you're going to want to see this film.

For years I avoided this film (like IKIRU) because it was not a samurai film. But after getting over those ridiculous reasons, I finally figured I needed to complete my Kurosawa education by seeing it.

And boy was I glad I did.

It is one of those films that does change you. Like every classic it stands the test of time not because of its entertainment value but because it is a great experience. Even months after seeing the film the first time I found myself always examining my own life against the noble attitudes of the main characters.

Yes, it's three hours long. And yes, you're going to want to spend time to digest it. But the three hours you devote to this film is worth it. If you loved TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, you're going to love this film.

Red Beard fmovies. In the Nineteenth Century, in Japan, the arrogant and proud just-graduated Dr. Noboru Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama) is forced to work in the Koshikawa Clinic, a non-profit health facility ruled by Dr. Kyojio Niide (Toshirô Mifune), a.k.a. "Red Beard". "Red Beard" is a good, sentimental, but also very firm, strong and fair man. While in the clinic, Dr. Yasumoto becomes responsible for healing the hurt teenager Otoyo (Terumi Niki), and he learns a lesson of humanity, becoming a better man.

"Akahige" is another magnificent work of Master Akira Kurosawa. The touching and low-paced story is very beautiful, and shows the redemption of a spoiled man that becomes a human being, learning important and worthwhile values of life. It is almost impossible to highlight one individual performance in such a spectacular cast, but Toshirô Mifune shows his versatility in the role of the good "Red Beard". The 185 running time, with intermission, does not make any part of this interesting story boring, and this film is highly recommended for any sensitive audience. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "O Barba Ruiva" ("The Red Beard")

Akira Kurosawa said about the film, "I had something special in mind when I made this film because I wanted to make something that my audience would want to see it, something so magnificent that people would just have to see it." Humanistic and compassionate, the film tells the story of a young doctor who after graduation from the Dutch Medical School in Nagasaki hopes to become a member of the court medical staff but instead has to take a post as an intern at a Public Clinic for the impoverished patients. The clinic is run by Dr. Nide (Toshiro Mifune) whom the destitute patients call "Red Beard". The long and difficult journey awaits the young doctor – from the initial shock and denial to work at the clinic, to learning how to understand his patients, care for them s and see the humans in them. Kurosawa describes the film, one of his directorial pinnacles as a "monument to the goodness in man". It also can be called a monument to his talent and humanism.

This was the sixth Kurosawa film I ever saw, in a film-viewing binge that began with Seven Samurai and has yet to satiate me. It did, however, mark a turning point for me as it did for him.

Up to then, I had only seen the B&W Samurai classics of the 50s and early 60s. The must-sees: not just Seven Samurai, but Yojimbo and Throne of Blood. The under-appreciated Sanjuro, and the light but enduring Hidden Fortress. This was my first non-samurai film from him. What I did not realise until later was that it was his career apotheosis.

Red Beard is not Kurosawa's best film. Yet when it came out, it was a phenomenon much like Titanic 30 years later. It broke the bank, it was an exercise in unprecedented creative and financial power by a major filmmaker, and it appealed to filmgoers like few filmes before or since. Kurosawa built a hospice and miniature village for his characters to inhabit, and this episodic story of a young star doctor discovering a vocation among the poor under the gruff "red beard" (Mifune) feels all the more authentic for it. It is a film of such deliberate ease and confidence that it could only be made by this director, at this point in his career. It could not be anything less than the fullest exploration of his most cherished themes - social injustice, the redemptive power of human kindness, personal codes. It could also do nothing but foreshadow his decline.

That's a lot of expectation to pile onto the unsuspecting viewer, so what do you get during those 3 hours? You get a first-class drama, Mifune's finest performance, and one of the most beautiful tear-jerkers ever to grace a screen. All the while, countless instances of technical brilliance remind you why this film could only be made by this director: a surgery covered in nothing but an extended closeup of the young doctor, an eerie seduction covered in an almost static, dreamlike wide shot, and, halfway through, the ass-kicking of a life-time and its touching follow-up.

This is an extinct form of filmmaking, one preserved in the ember of its stark black-and-white film stock. The cinematic equivalent of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton: there are ways in which you won't relate, but it is daunting, powerful, and a journey into an intriguing other world well worth spending 3 hours in, and then some.