Red Beard - Criterion Collection

Starring:ToshirÃ´ Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Reiko Dan, Miyuki Kuwano, KyÃ´ko Kagawa, Tatsuyoshi Ehara, Terumi Niki, Akemi Negishi, Yoshio Tsuchiya, EijirÃ´ Tono, Takashi Shimura, Chishu Ryu, Haruko Sugimura, Kinuyo Tanaka, EijirÃ´ Yanagi, Koji Mitsui, Nobuo Chiba, Kamatari Fujiwara, Ken Mitsuda
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Studio: Home Vision Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

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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 protégé, 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

Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

The title qualifies but never enables!.......2007-02-24

It's widely known the epic gaze that made from the great master Akira Kurosawa, an undeniable supreme filmmaker. So under this perspective - at least according my view- this movie - based on a charity clinic , is somehow an original way to explore the countless facets of the human behavior, in which concerns to misery, sickness that is used by Kurosawa as a smart metaphor, but an incisive scalpel to carve in relief an epic statement respect the way we must deal the existence, day by day.

A ferrous drama that demonstrates once more the lavish genius of Kurosawa. And despite it's overlong its intrinsic virtues are disseminated in every frame of the picture. The youthful irreverence of a young doctor who pretends his knowledge belongs exclusively to him, but since the moment he enters to that clinic he will have to deal with the life and death, some issues that are not explicit in the books, slowly but progressively his initial arrogance will decay through this life's lesson.

Another artistic feat of the Japanese master!

"Who is 'Brown Beard' ?".......2007-01-09

The only down-side I have seen to this movie is the English subtitles. They appear to have been written by a Japanese student in his or her, I'd guess, 4th year of taking "Engrish". I don't wish to suggest that for a non-Japanese speaker (read, this reviewer) they are distracting. However, I have noticed more than once that the word usements (thank you, Steve Martin) and sentence designs are somewhat awkward. It was, I suspect, accidental; either that or the translator was practicing some sort of verbal origami. For example, one is left asking who is "Brown Beard"?

That being said, please don't let the above dissuade you from watching (or owning) this movie. I believe that most of us who are able to sit through it will come away with an appreciation of how, given the right circumstances, our personal selfish desires can change into genuine compassion. (For you and me, however, the "trick" is to be in the right circumstances. I can't help you with that.)

One further suggestion, if I may: watch this movie by yourself and without distractions. In that way you will have the opportunity to focus on the story & the people. Hopefully this will allow you to "feel" what's happening. You might even find yourself identifying with different aspects of different characters. Don't expect to be entertained. That will be for another day and a different movie.

Sayonara.

"A Monument to the Goodness in Man", .......2006-12-22

Akira Kurosawa said about his film "Akahige", "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.

Kurosawa's Beautiful Masterpiece About Humanity!.......2006-12-06

For some reason I have always like this Toshiro Mifune character more than any of his other roles. And that is saying quite a lot, considering that this late, great legendary actor portrayed so many wonderful characters throughout his wonderful career. Just as Takashi Shimura's role in "Ikiru" is my favorite role with him [even though he acted in many great films] there is something about the nature of their characters in these two great Kurosawa films that humbles me. One of the reviewers wrote that they don't make films like this anymore. And he is right. And this is our loss, as well as the Film Industry's. This film is magical and a true masterpiece of cinema.

In the film, when the young and arrogant Dr. Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama) finds that he will not be the attending physician at the Imperial Court; but instead working for the lowly peasants [in his mind] with Dr. Niide, (Toshiro Mifune) a.k.a., 'Red Beard,' he is resentful. Yet the patience that the elder Dr. Niide shows this arrogant young Doctor-to-be is one of showing, not telling. Red Beard's example as to what a physican is meant to be, not what one wishes to be, sets a great example to Dr. Yasumoto. Which in turn transforms Dr. Yasumoto into a better human being. His time spent in the company of the peasants and Dr. Niide show him that he is needed, not at the Imperial Court, but with those truly in need.

There are many films that Toshiro Mifune did in his career which I have, and without a doubt his acting abilities in many films are standout, however, this film has always been the one that I find him to be stellar in. And I have quite a few of his films. Many not so well known in the west. This film gives the viewer a lesson in humanity about what is important in life: The helping of one's fellow human being. And this is one of the reasons I have always liked this film. Truly remarkable. This film was also the last collaboration between Toshiro Mifune, and Akira Kurosawa. Nonetheless, they both left behind enough films which will always be treasured by those who admire such great works of cinema. This film is highly recommended. It is in black and white. And belongs in your cinema collection.

Beautiful Depiction of Humanity and Medicine.......2006-09-12

While a Kurosawa fan, I had largely only seen his samurai epics, with "Rashomon" being the notable exception. When I saw he made a film about medicine, it piqued my curiosity and I am much richer for it.

In the movie, an arrogant young physician, Dr. Yasumoto unwilling works in a charity clinic with Dr. Niide, a.k.a., "Red Beard", who is played by Toshiro Mifune in his last role in a Kurosawa film.

This film is also the last black and white movie Kurosawa shot, and is a beautiful coda to this phase of Kurosawa's work. The use of lighting in particular has great symbolic and aesthetic effect as we watch Dr. Yasumoto learn medicine and compassion under Red Beard's tutelage.

Kurosawa does not pull many punches with 19th Century medicine: we sit with the physicians as they listen to the final breaths of a dying patient and watch a woman thrash against restraints as Red Beard operates on her in an era without anesthetics. We hear stories of sexual abuse and see all the warts of human existence, but we do so with a tough compassion and charity that is profoundly stirring.

Kurosawa is not just a great director and artist, but a skilled psychologist and lover of mankind. This movie deserves to be ranked with other Kurosawa masterpieces like the Seven Samurai, Ran, and Rashomon.

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