Product: The Bad Sleep Well (1963)
Rating: 4.0
More than noir, and actually quite different from Hamlet
This film is really unique (even for Kurosawa) in that it captures all of the mystery, suspense, and angst of a noir while maintaining the very same majestic gravitas as *Seven Samurai*, *Throne of Blood*, *Ran* or any of Kurosawa's other great medieval epics.Indeed much of Kurosawa's best work carries a highly distinctive and supremely confident muscular swagger which can be found here in the stirring (and rather addictive) musical motif, the altogether patient and very deliberate pacing, and the seemingly effortless transitions he makes between the tragic and the comic.*The Bad Sleep Well* often gets described as a variation on *Hamlet*. The key word here is "variation" (rather than "version" or "adaptation"), for while Kurosawa might have begun with Shakespeare, the final products really don't turn out to be in any sense all that similar. There is no Gertrude, no Rozencrantz and Guildenstern, let alone any gravediggers (just to name a few), and there is very little structural resemblance between the stories (inasmuch as *Hamlet* can be said to have any sort of structure). For example, the finale doesn't conclude with virtually *everybody* getting killed--after all, in Kurosawa's framework the bad sleep well (and consequently live happily ever after). Also, Nishi's character is far less ambiguous than Hamlet's; while he may at certain junctures fail to take his plan for revenge the entire way, he doesn't come close to sharing the overall indecision and confusion of Hamlet. But these sorts of differences actually make the complex interrelationship between the two works all the more intriguing and thought-provoking.The film's story may eventually become "clear as a bell," but it certainly does not start out that way. Don't get discouraged if during the first twenty minutes (or even half hour) you're having trouble figuring out what's going on, or who's who, esp. during the opening wedding sequence. But I think such initial confusion might be intended, because it really does set your mind aworking to help put the pieces of the puzzle together and to understand the various characters' motivations. (It should be noted, by the way, that the selfless and straightforward acting in Kurosawa's films is amongst the best you will ever see.)I wouldn't recommend this as someone's first or (God forbid!) only Kurosawa. But if you've been struck by something you've seen of his already, then you most certainly will not want to miss *The Bad Sleep Well*.