Product: The Bad Sleep Well (1963)
Rating: 5.0
Rare combination of style and substance
The Bad Sleeps Well is near-perfection: from the showy introduction of the wedding banquet to the riveting conclusion of BAD-man Iwabuchi's (Mori in an almost unrecognisable role) phonecall. The impression here is corruption knows no end --- whichever way you go on the hierarchy of the power structure.Most of the "Kurosawa familiy" of actors are here, but Akira Nishimura as Shirai brings a touch of humor (perhaps a perverse kind on the viewer's part) to his torture sequence. Takeshi Kato also gets to express himself more than his role in High and Low allows. Much of the film has a "Western" overtone - down to rich playboy Tatsuo's game of hunting, and the interior of the ruined factory that's reminiscent of dungeons in WWII films...oh boy. You won't forget Nishii's (Mifune in restrained mode) whistling - masterfully used here for characterization and musical counterpoint."He's no man! He's an official!"