The Bad Sleep Well

Starring:ToshirÃ´ Mifune, Masayuki Mori, KyÃ´ko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takashi Shimura, KÃ´ Nishimura, Takeshi KatÃ´, Kamatari Fujiwara, Chishu Ryu, Seiji Miyaguchi, Koji Mitsui, Ken Mitsuda, Nobuo Nakamura, Susumu Fujita, Koji Nambara, Gen Shimizu, Yoshifumi Tajima, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Somesho Matsumoto, Kyu Sazanka
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Studio: Japanese Import
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video
The Bad Sleep Well tells the story of corruption at the highest levels of Japanese business and its tragic consequences. Though flawed by a tedious introductory sequence and by an ending that seems out of sync with the story, it is a fascinating movie and the middle part is especially exciting.

Japanese legend Toshiro Mifune plays Koichi Nishi, the seemingly stoic bridegroom who is trying to get ahead by marrying the boss's daughter, Kieko (Kyoko Kagawa), who was crippled as a girl. The bride's brother, in a shocking display, exposes the groom's motives during his wedding toast and threatens his new brother-in-law with death if he disappoints his sister. But Nishi is not who we think. He was born the illegitimate son of the man who Kieko's father, Iwabuchi (Maysayuki Mori), manipulated into suicide. Now Nishi wants revenge for his father's death. As Nishi slowly destroys Iwabuchi's life, he makes the fatal error of falling in love with his wife, who already loves him. Their unconsummated marriage stands between these two like a palpable pillar of stone. But just when we think the stone has been tossed aside by love, Iwabuchi finds out who his son-in-law really is.

Amazon.com essential video

The Bad Sleep Well tells the story of corruption at the highest levels of Japanese business and its tragic consequences. Though flawed by a tedious introductory sequence and by an ending that seems out of sync with the story, it is a fascinating movie and the middle part is especially exciting.

Customer Reviews:

The Bad Sleep Well.......2007-06-28

Based on a story by Ed McBain, this modern-day variation on "Hamlet" is a tense, complex psychological drama, with star Mifune (who was Kurosawa's charismatic, recurring leading man well into the sixties, here barely recognizable in glasses) turning in an unusually restrained performance. While succeeding more as chilling revenge tale than unfiltered romance, the film hooks you regardless. There's very little chance "Bad" will put you to sleep!

A great Hamlet Adaptation.......2007-04-21

After viewing Ran my initial reaction was simple awe. I had never before seen such a stunning epic, and never had the story of King Lear been adapted so poetically and viscerally. There has not been a film since that has come close to the way I perceived Ran, I was simply blown away.

After viewing a few more Kurosawa pictures I came upon one entitled 'Throne of Blood'. While I felt it was defiantly one of Kurosawa's stronger pictures, it also seemed to lack the Shakespearian atmosphere that Ran had. I liked it, but felt it was closer to The Seven Samurai as oppose to Ran.

Then, later still, I came upon The Bad Sleep Well. I expected something similar to Throne of Blood, with Kurosawa's 50s-60s atmosphere rather then his 80s-90s atmosphere. Well it turned out that I was wrong. The Bad Sleep Well is easily Kurosawa's most underrated picture, overshadowed by Yojimbo & Sanjuro afterward, and The Hidden Fortress before. The Bad Sleep Well however, does not take the same ambiance as those pictures, rather it shows a flash of Kurosawa's elderly genius from such pictures as Kagemusha and Ran(not to undermine his early genius, its just that the film feels much like one of his later pictures). I won't bother going into detail on the story, as most are already familiar with Shakespeare's Hamlet, and American film-noir; but what I will tell you however, is how well it adapts to the story(s), and that its narrative really flows at a great pace.

The Bad Sleep Well features a great performance by Toshiro Mifune, playing the Hamlet character in a very interesting way, similar in some ways to Laurence Olivier's 1948 version. His performance is what steals the show; although I thought there were some interesting supporting roles, none really stand up to his sheer intensity.

The film stays as true to the play as possible in a modern Japan setting, keeping the essentials and retaking bits and pieces to give it a different, almost more nihilist feel. The changes flow smoothly though, and the film can be nicely appreciated by both fans of both William Shakespeare and Akira Kurosawa.

I give the Bad Sleep Well 8/10. It's not Ran or Rashomon, but it is defiantly one of his strongest pictures that is not regarded as a total masterpiece. Defiantly check it out, you will not be disappointed.

An interesting Kurosawa film about corporate corruption, with a fine performance by Toshiro Mifune.......2006-08-03

Despite many good elements, The Bad Sleep Well is one Kurosawa movie that didn't involve me much, either emotionally or in the story telling. I've always found it hard to take seriously movie stories where the villain, either an individual or an organization, is so all-powerful and so competent that he or it simply can't be touched. Here we have a tale of massive corporate corruption in post-war Japan which is led by an unseen evil which can arrange not just for suicides, blackmail, murder and the cover ups, but for all those messy details like cleaning up afterwards and immaculate body disposal. Bureaucratic self-sacrifice is the expected behavior of subordinates, when necessary. As one character says, "You don't understand bureaucrats. A good official never implicates a superior, no matter what the cost." For me, the pervasive success of the bad ones doesn't lead to great drama or to wrenching, paranoid discovery, but just to melodrama,

Adding to the distance I felt is the behavior of the...well, not hero, exactly. Protagonist? Nishi (Toshiro Mifune) is so consumed by revenge that he unhesitatingly takes upon himself the role of judge and executioner, destroying many of those around him who are either innocent of anything other than loving him or who are small potatoes in the schemes of corruption. And the Mr. Bigs? Nishi tells us "Even now they sleep soundly, with grins on their faces. I won't stand for it! I can never hate them enough!" Do the ends justify the means? I seldom think so, certainly not in a movie, yet it is difficult to feel sympathy for Nishi unless we're willing to give that question the benefit of the doubt. In the last quarter of the movie, when Nishi softens a bit and even seems of the verge of success with no further great violence, I think I had just spent too much time finding his obsession with revenge tiring.

That last quarter brings things into focus in ways that make at least some of the preceding time seem unnecessary. Still, Nishi's feeling about his wife, his questioning of his own methods, his background, all brought him into a more interesting light, where before he simply seemed to me a creature of obsession and ruthlessness.

The film opens with a great-story setting scene. Everything we need to know about the plot is given to us here, largely by exposition from some reporters. We're at the elaborate wedding dinner of Nishi and the daughter of a senior officer of a large construction company. We see and learn about the corrupt characters and the background of corruption. We see notes being passed, a police inspector showing up, reporters talking to themselves (and to us). We see the strangely expressionless face of Nishi. We see a large cake decorated to look like an office building come rolling in right after the wedding cake, and we note a red rose sticking out from a seventh floor window of the cake. We learn this represents the window where five years earlier a mid-level bureaucrat jumped to his death. And off we go into the rest of the tale.

Mifune does a terrific job as Nishi. He made Nishi's obsession believable. I also liked very much Takashi Shimura's portrayal of Moriyama, the obsequious and reliable bureaucrat, and Tatusuya Mihashi as Nishi's brother-in-law. Probably the most thankless role was played by Kyoko Kagawa as Nishi's wife. She noted in an interview on the disc that almost every emotion her character felt had to be shown indirectly and with reserve. She does a fine job.

Don't mistake me; the movie is interesting and the story keeps moving ahead. Just don't expect a Kurosawa masterpiece. If at all possible, don't read the two essays in the booklet that accompanies the disc. The one written by Chuck Stephens, identified as a contributing editor to something called Film Comment, is particularly mannered and pretentious. With their labored pedantry and jarring attempts at similes and alliteration, the essays do the film no good service.

The Criterion DVD picture looks just fine. The important extra is a 33-minute documentary on the making of the film. Several of the actors look back and comment on their roles and what it was like working with Kurosawa.

a film about corruption and revenge. another Kurosawa classic!.......2006-05-21

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"The Bad Sleep Well" known is Japan as "Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru" or "The Worse You Are the Better You Sleep" is about a business executive who is seeking revenge on the people in his company who murdered his father. The film is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Shakespearean elements are common in Akira Kurosawa's films. The film also documents the rampant corruption in big corporations which is very common today and some have said that the film was ahead of it's time.

The Criterion DVD has a theatrical trailer and a documentary on the film's production as special features.

Complex and riveting drama.......2006-03-06

The perpetrators of a high-level corporate scandal (Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Ko Nishimura) are pursued by the illegitamate son (Toshiro Mifune) of a low-level functionary that they drove to suicide to protect their schemes. This film begins as a deeply satisfying revenge epic, but the masterful director Akira Kurosawa is not content to let it rest there. He draws out all the moral complexities of the situation, then hits us with an unexpected development at the end that gives an ironic twist to his title. The bad may not always go to prison for their crimes, but do they really "sleep well?"

Average customer rating:

The Bad Sleep Well
A great Hamlet Adaptation
An interesting Kurosawa film about corporate corruption, with a fine performance by Toshiro Mifune
a film about corruption and revenge. another Kurosawa classic!
Complex and riveting drama

The Bad Sleep Well
Starring: Toshirô Mifune , Masayuki Mori , Kyôko Kagawa , Tatsuya Mihashi , and Takashi Shimura
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Manufacturer: Japanese Import
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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