Product: The Bad Sleep Well (1963)
Rating: 3.0
Wrong Or Right Don't Matter Here
Possible plot point marked with #.Well...what to say about this Japaneese movie. One of the recommendations I had heard for similar movies was Ichi the Killer. Yup.A much less violent movie by far. But then again it was from 1960 so im assuming the censors wouldnt have allowed Ichi level violence back then. The basic story is (and this is told in the description of the movie, at least Netflixs description of it, so not really a spoiler) a person blames his fathers death, a suicide, on the company he worked for. So this person set out to make the lives of those held responsible a living hell. ###He literally drives one of the people clinically insane.### There is an air of creepiness to this character since he doesnt seem to have any remorse at all. ###Heck half the time hes whistling a sweet tune like hes in a Disney movie and trying to attract small woodland animals! This is even when hes about to go kill or torture someone! I found that very creepy and didnt want to ruin it for someone else who happens to skip this and watch the film. Although if you read this then oh well, guess youll just have to see if its still creepy when youre not taken by surprise by it.###What it intersting about this movie is the dynamic it sets up. You feel the man is vindicated in taking revenge for his fathers death. But at the same time you feel sorry for what he is putting these people through. When i watched it i ended up with a little bit of sympathy for both sides, blurring the line of what was right and wrong. One of the ways Kurosawa did this was ###the man who is torturing the people makes them think one of thier own is dead. But he keeps the person alive and hidden. So when they see the man they think they are seeing his ghost. This character also acts as a foil for the violent acts of the person. You can see him in the backgroud questioning this other mans intentions, but feeling helpless to do anything about them.###The dynamic itself propells this movie through its running time of close to three hours (2 hrs, 40 mins) The movie is on BOTH sides of the disk so dont be surprised if the movie abrubtly ends or starts somewhere in the middle for some reason. For me it took a while to get into what was going on and understand it. Part of the problem was the crappy subtitles. Engrish is very heavy here. I was laughing at some of them so hard i had missed what someone had said. Plus where youre having to read a movie, it helps if you understand what is being said. I think this movie also relies some on knowing the Japaneese culture some because there was terminology i just didnt get. They kept talking about The Public something. The Public what?This movie leaves you wondering just what good and bad really mean. Are there some bad acts that can be justified? Can good intentions be done for bad purposes? That murky gray area is explored intricately in this film. You run around lost in the fog for a couple of hours, unsure exactly where to go or how to feel and, even aftr the movies over and the fog has lifted, you still arent sure where to go from there. If youre in the mood for an interesting, thought provoking movie (and dont mind reading crappy subtitles) then id say check this one out.