Red Beard

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{{Infobox Film |name = Red Beard |image = RedBeardCriterion.jpg |director = Akira Kurosawa |producer = Ryuzo Kikushima
Tomoyuki Tanaka |writer = Masato Ide
Ryuzo Kikushima
Akira Kurosawa
Hideo Oguni |starring = Toshirô Mifune
Yuzo Kayama |movie_music= Masaru Satô |distributor= |released= April 1965 (Japan) |runtime = 185 min. |language = Japanese |imdb_id = 0058888 |music = |awards = |budget = |}}

For other uses, see Red Beard (disambiguation)

Red Beard (赤ひげ, Akahige) is a 1965 feature film by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. The film takes place in Edo (the former name of the city of Tokyo) in 19th century Japan.

Red Beard was adapted from a novel by Shugoro Yamamoto. Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Insulted and the Injured provides a major subplot about a young girl, Otoyo (Terumi Niki), who is rescued from a brothel. Kurosawa also draws upon Dostoevsky for his film Hakuchi (The Idiot). Red Beard looks at the problem of social injustice and explores two of Kurosawa's favourite topics: existential humanism and existentialism.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Details and trivia
4 See also
5 External links

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Plot

Young Dr. Noboru Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama) is the film's protagonist. Trained in Dutch medical schools, the arrogant Yasumoto aspires to the status of personal physician of the Shogunate. For Yasumoto's post-graduate medical training, he has been assigned to a rural clinic under the guidance of Akahige ("Red Beard"), Dr. Kyojio Niide (played by Toshiro Mifune). Dr. Niide may seem like a tyrannical task master, but in reality he is a compassionate clinic director. Initially, Yasumoto is livid at his posting, believing that he has little to gain from working under Akahige.

Dr. Yasumoto feels that Dr. Niide is only interested in his medical notes and soon rebels against the clinic director. He refuses to wear his uniform, disdains the food and spartan environment, and enters the forbidden garden where he meets "The Mantis" (Kyoko Kagawa), a mysterious patient that only Dr. Niide can treat.

Through his observations of Dr. Niide's compassion and a series of destitute patients, Dr. Yasumoto learns what being a doctor really means. The lives of patients are more important than wealth or status. Their suffering can be ameliorated with compassion and conscientious care.

Image:Mifune(RedBeard).jpg

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Cast

Toshiro Mifune - Dr. Kyojio Niide, Akahige ("Red Beard")
Yuzo Kayama - Dr. Noboru Yasumoto
Kyoko Kagawa - "The Mantis" or "Madwoman"
Terumi Niki - Otoyo

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Details and trivia

Red Beard is 185 minutes long and was shot at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It was Kurosawa's first film to make use of a magnetic 4-track stereo soundtrack.

This is the last film by Kurosawa in which Toshiro Mifune appeared.

This film also marked the end of black and white filming by Kurosawa.

Principal photography took two years.

Period construction of the hospital went as far as to use the right kind of aged wood that would have been used in the region at the time the film is set, per Kurosawa's request.