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| RED BEARD (AKAHIGE)
(director/writer: Akira Kurosawa; screenwriters: Masato
Ide/Ryuzo Kikushima/Hideo Oguni/Shugoro Yamamoto from
the novel "Akahige shinryotan" by Shugoro Yamamoto;
cinematographers: Asaichi Nakai/Takao Saito;
music: Masaru Sato; cast: Toshiro
Mifune (Dr. Kyojio Niide, 'Akahige' ['Red Beard']), Yuzo
Kayama (Dr. Noboru Yasumoto), Tsutomu Yamazaki
(Sahachi), Reiko Dan (Osugi), Miyuki Kuwano (Onaka),
Kyoko Kagawa (Madwoman), Tatsuya Ehara (Genzo Tsugawa),
Terumi Niki (Otoyo), Akemi Negishi (Okuni, the
mistress), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Dr. Handayu Mori), Eijiro
Tono (Goheiji), Chishu Ryu (Mr. Yasumoto), Takashi
Shimura (Tokubei Izumiya), Haruko Sugimura (Kin, the
madam), Kinuyo Tanaka (Madame Yasumoto, Noboru's mother);
Runtime: 185; MPAA Rating: NR; producers:
Ryûzô Kikushima/Tomoyuki Tanaka;
Criterion; 1965-Japan-in Japanese with English
subtitles) "A banal, discursive and overlong Dr. Kildare-like soap opera, that's no better than General Hospital." Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz A banal, discursive and overlong Dr. Kildare-like soap opera, that's no better than General Hospital. Director Akira Kurosawa ("Drunken Angel"/"Stray Dog"/"Ran") works his expertise craftsmanship over this nonsense, but can't turn such mediocrity into art no matter how skilled he is as a master filmmaker. Kurosawa bases it on the novel "Akahige shinryotan" by Shugoro Yamamoto. The screenplay was written by Kurosawa and his regular writers Masato Ide, Ryuzo Kikushima and Hideo Oguni. It was the last collaboration between Kurosawa and the great iconic actor Toshiro Mifune. In 1820,
young ambitious snobby Dr. Noboru Yasumoto (Yuzo
Kayama) arrives in his native Edo after studying in
Nagasaki, and aspires to treat the rich and marry a
rich man's daughter. But he's assigned to intern at a
charity clinic run by the aging autocratic Dr.
Kyojo Niide, better known as Red Beard (Toshiro
Mifune). Under Red Beard's tough love and wise
counseling the insolent Yasumoto reforms and
finds unselfish rewards in healing the poor and trying
to eliminate poverty. Yasumoto at the
end of his internship turns down an offer to be a
society doctor, and dedicates his life to helping the
poor. It's
predictable, simplistic, often unbearable in its
sentimentality and its social drama yields to a
heavy-handed humanitarian message. Enjoyable only to
watch Mifune work wonders with such a feeble script,
where he even goes samurai crazy in one ridiculous
over-the-top scene. The
big-budget b/w personal film of Kurosawa took two
years to film and turned out to be in Japan a critical
and commercial success. At the Japanese version of the
Oscars, Kinema Jumpo, it won for Best
Picture and Best Director. At the Venice Film Festival
it won for Mifune the Best Actor award. REVIEWED ON 8/16/2012 GRADE: C+ Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |