Akahige
Tags: insanity

Plot synopsis:
In 1820, young Dr. Yasumoto, returned to Edo after graduating from Dutch medical school in Nagasaki. He presented himself at the public clinic managed by Dr. Niide (Toshiro Mifune), aka Akahige (Red Beard- because of the color of his beard), thinking it was merely a courtesy call arranged by his father (who also a physician).To his surprise and displeasure, he found that out he was expected to work there for a while. Yasumoto didn't find anything to his liking. He found out that the doctors were expected to sacrifice sun (the patients needed the sunny rooms), heat (better for the soul), and tatami (Japanese comfortable bedding). Extremely upset & frustrated because he had hoped to find a prestigious post as a shogun's personal physician, Yasumoto rebelled by not doing what he was supposed to do and refusing to follow the rules. He would not wear the traditional clinic doctor's uniform, refused to eat, drank sake (though it was forbidden) and complained that the patients stank (which one of his colleague at the clinic called "the smell of poverty"). He reclined on the lawn in front of an isolated ward reserved for a murderous female mental patient (which he had been warned to avoid). In short, he believed he was too good for this under-funded public clinic-that the job and patients were beneath him. His goal was to be asked to leave.One night, the mental patient escaped from her ward. Dr. Niide & nurse Osugi went out looking for her. The escaped patient (nicknamed the Mantis) showed up in Yasumoto's bedroom. She told Yasumoto the story of her life, how men had raped her many times, beginning at age 9. They threatened to kill her if she ever denounced them and she kept quiet. Finally, after a few years, she had had enough of the sexual abuse and snapped-- killing three men (thus the name Mantis). She was quite beautiful and Yasumoto succumbed to her charms. She seduced him, with the intention of killing him. Dr. Niide came back, just in time, to save him. Red Beard excused him for being drunk & for his weakness, as with all other men, because of her beauty and charm. According to Dr. Niide, the Mantis was just born that way.Little by little, Yasumoto started to integrate into the workforce at the clinic. For his 1st assistance in the operating room, he couldn't stand it & fainted. Yasumoto discovered that Dr. Niide, even though he looked stern & appeared difficult, had a kind heart. He managed to get a bit of money to help a patient's destitute daughter with 3 small children (the old man just passed away before her arrival). He gave her 5 ryos (1 gold ryo = USD$150 today). Later he said that he was able to get that money from the magistrate, because he knew the judge had a mistress on the side. Hinting that he might make this information public, Red Beard was able to get the charges against her for attacking her husband dropped. Gradually, Yasumoto started to put on the uniform.When Dr. Niide learned that funds for the clinic were being cut by the government, he was very unhappy. With Yasumoto in tow, he paid a visit to an obese wealthy lord. He ordered a lean diet for the man & charged him 50 ryos, instead of the usual fee of 30. On the way back to the clinic, they paid a visit to a brothel to see a patient with syphilis. There they discovered the madam & her servant were getting a 12 year old girl ready, by way of beating, to receive customers. Dr. Niide had to use force to defeat a dozen thugs working for that madam in order to bring the girl, Otoyo, to the clinic, and begin healing her.He assigned Yasumoto to care for the girl. She was to be his first official patient. Not only was she physically sick (with a fever), she manifested abnormal mental behavior as well (wiping the floor without stopping when she was not feverish, not speaking, and refusing kindnesses). At first Otoyo was resistant, but gradually with Dr. Niide's patience, she started to accept treatment (drinks & medications).Meanwhile, Yasumoto had a visitor named Masae. She was Yasumoto's ex-fiancee's (Chiugas) sister. At first, he refused to see her. But one day, Masae waited for Yasumoto at the gate, hoping to see him. This time he agreed to talk and invited her inside. Seeing Otoyo wearing a torn and weathered kimono, Masae brought her some nice clothes. But Otoyo was not happy with them, because she realized that Masae drew away Yasumoto's attention. In a jealous rage, she threw the new clothes into the mud. She was scolded by the female orderlies. Dr. Niide told them that this was actually a good sign. He could see that Otoyo's love for Yasumoto was her first step in being able to see good in people and overcoming the mistreatment she had experienced. He knew that with time, she would be able to love others as well.One day, while Osugi was having an intimate moment with another doctor at the clinic, the madwoman tried to hang herself. The Mantis' father came & scolded Osugi severely. Dr. Niide came to her defense & reprimanded the father for not caring enough for his daughter, allowing strangers to take advantage of her, causing her illness.One day, a 7 year old beggar boy named Chubo, snuck into the clinic kitchen, trying to steal some gruel. Otoyo befriended him, gave him food, and pleaded with him not to steal anymore. Some time later, the boy came to say goodbye, saying he, his parents, and 2 brothers were leaving for a better place. Otoyo was too young to suspect anything, believing they had some rich relatives who could help them out. Shortly thereafter, the whole family was brought in on the brink of death because they had swallowed rat poison. They were trying to kill themselves because of the disgrace of having a thief in the family (Chubo had been caught stealing again despite Otoyo's pleas). The boy & his parents were saved but his 2 brothers perished.Dr. Niide brought good news to Dr. Yasumoto. Masae's parents proposed that he marry Masae & forgive her sister. Their father, because of the broken engagement, had forbidden Masae's sister to set foot in his house. Now since she had given birth to a baby, he wanted to forgive her in order to be able to see his grandchild. Yasumoto also was promised a post under a shogunate's wing--the job he had always wanted.Yasumoto expressed remorse & regret with Dr. Niide for being haughty & arrogant upon his arrival at the clinic. He expressed regret for questioning Dr. Niide's intentions when Akahige wanted to see his notes. He had learned how to become a real doctor, not only with his knowledge in medicine but how to help others who were much less fortunate than he was - in short, how to be a compassionate doctor.At their wedding ceremony, Yasumoto announced to Masae, in front of their parents & Dr. Niide that he wished to inform her that if she wanted to become his wife, she should be prepared for a life without honor & money because he had decided to continue to work at the clinic of Dr. Niide. Dr. Niide tried to talk him out of it, realizing that it would be a challenging and difficult life--and not for the faint of heart. Yasumoto stuck to his newly learned principles. Akahige was inwardly pleased.

Review: Akira Kurosawa's direction was never better, Mifune never acted better and at it's core Red Beard tells a story borrowed heavily form Dostoevsky, thus making this a labour of love.
Akira Kurosawa said about the film, "I had something special in mind when I made this film because I wanted to make something that my audience would want to see it, something so magnificent that people would just have to see it." Humanistic and compassionate, the film tells the story of a young doctor who after graduation from the Dutch Medical School in Nagasaki hopes to become a member of the court medical staff but instead has to take a post as an intern at a Public Clinic for the impoverished patients.
The long and difficult journey awaits the young doctor  from the initial shock and denial to work at the clinic, to learning how to understand his patients, care for them s and see the humans in them.
What I did not realise until later was that it was his career apotheosis.Red Beard is not Kurosawa's best film.
Kurosawa built a hospice and miniature village for his characters to inhabit, and this episodic story of a young star doctor discovering a vocation among the poor under the gruff "red beard" (Mifune) feels all the more authentic for it.
All the while, countless instances of technical brilliance remind you why this film could only be made by this director: a surgery covered in nothing but an extended closeup of the young doctor, an eerie seduction covered in an almost static, dreamlike wide shot, and, halfway through, the ass-kicking of a life-time and its touching follow-up.This is an extinct form of filmmaking, one preserved in the ember of its stark black-and-white film stock.
In a world where pettiness abounds to see the big-hearted nature of the main characters and how such compassion literally changes people for the better -- you're going to want to see this film.For years I avoided this film (like IKIRU) because it was not a samurai film.
While in the clinic, Dr. Yasumoto becomes responsible for healing the hurt teenager Otoyo (Terumi Niki), and he learns a lesson of humanity, becoming a better man."Akahige" is another magnificent work of Master Akira Kurosawa.
Although the great Toshiro Mifune dominates the film as the hospital head, it is the effect of his presence on the young doctor who pays him a visit that is the main theme of the narrative.
Nevertheless it is full of wonderfully contrasted sequences from the knockabout humour of Mifune applying his medical skills to warding off a group of assailants by breaking their limbs like matchsticks to the tender scene of the young doctor being nursed back from sickness by the girl rescued from enslavement in a brothel.
In a way, they both were the needed cure for each other.Akira Kurosawa is most famous for his samurai/war films like Seven samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, or Ran. But here, we have a period piece that is not set as a samurai story.
I cared so much about the characters that I could just watch another 3-hours of it if the story were to continue that way.Kurosawa is definitely a genius of 20's century filmmaking.
Kurosawa takes his time to establish his characters and once it is done emphasis shifted to story and sub-plots.On moral grounds it teaches us all that humanity is the only sky above all humans and one must not forget this fact.All technical aspects including camera handling, set designs, acting from supporting staff is very good.
It could be because the movie is 3 hours long, but it is probably more due to the skill of Akira Kurosawa and his meticulous craftsmanship.Some complaints of the film are that it is slow, too episodic, too much like TV medical dramas, it treats psychotherapy like the newfound Holy Grail (and in 1965 Japan it might have been), but the movie is so well done it doesn't really matter.
Kurosawa considered 'Red Beard' his monument to the goodness of man, and it is inspiring in such a way.Toshiro Mifune is wonderfully restrained as 'Red Beard', but you know when he starts rubbing his chin, he's going to kick some ass, mostly verbally, but in one scene, physically; he beats the crap out of some thugs who don't want him to take a sick girl to his clinic.
He also will speak his mind beyond that of a typical doctor; poor parents get chastised, the lazy rich get a dressing down, and even acknowledges that well-being is usually in the mind of the patient and sometimes the best doctor in the world cannot change that.As always, it's a shame Kurosawa and Mifune went their separate ways after this film, because they truly did bring out the best in one another..
Through the instruction of an older doctor, the wise Red Beard (Mifune), and exposure to human suffering around him, he grows up and finds his place in the world of medicine.
This is the case with Red Beard, a picture best known for being the last in a long line of collaborations with actor Toshiro Mifune.Kurosawa typically had a kind of mission statement with every film he made.
Eventually all the stories of grief and woe just start to sound ridiculous.Of course, there is one overarching storyline, that of the young doctor Yasumoto's transformation from being a selfish snob who resents having to treat poor people, to a dedicated professional who takes satisfaction in his work.
The most uplifting moment in the film is when Yasumoto wears his uniform for the first time, and is immediately greeted with greater respect from both colleagues and patients.And, in spite of his poor judgement with the plot, Kurosawa's direction is still of good standard and there are plenty of marks of quality.
It's choreographed just like the frantic arm-chopping scene from Yojimbo, but rather than drawing a sword Mifune is instead twisting limbs and cracking bones in a completely bloodless fight.It's a pity that this was Mifune's swansong with Kurosawa, not just because it's a poorer film, but also because Mifune is somewhat sidelined to a secondary role (in spite of being the titular character), and it's not a performance where he really gets to flourish.
I'd never thought this would happen, but it did: This one's the first black-and-white Kurosawa pic I don't care about.Yes, his direction is impeccable; yes, the photography is marvellous; yes, it's all in good taste and style.But the overlong and predictable narrative never goes beyond superficial medical soap opera hokum - except, maybe, for the final part -, Mifune's beard-stroking performance is oddly boring, the social message is delivered with a heavy hand and the individual episodes featuring different cases of mental and physical illness lack insight.Surely a must-see for fans of the great Japanese director, but just a mediocre swan song to the successful Kurosawa-Mifune-collaboration.5 out of 10 butt-kickin' medicos.
It was that last time that his common leading man, Toshiro Mifune would appear in one of his films.Mifune plays the title character, Red Beard who is the head doctor in a government run clinic for the poor.
But soon, he realizes from his patients, himself, and most importantly Red Beard what it means to become a good doctor.Red Beard is a long film that clocks over three hours, but is never boring and  carries a strong message of what it means to be human.
For Yasumoto's post-graduate medical training, he has been transferred to a countryside clinic under the leadership of a clinic director aptly nicknamed Red Beard, played by Toshiro Mifune in a tremendous performance, seeming like a domineering tyrant, however it is easy to see that in truth he is a kindhearted clinic leader.
At the outset of the movie, Yasumoto is up in arms about his relocation, judging beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has not much to reap from working under Red Beard, whom he believes is merely interested in his medical writings and almost immediately defies the clinic director.
He rejects his uniform and turns his nose up at the food and simple surroundings.In a scene of tension that one could cut with a pairing knife, Yasumoto crosses into the prohibited garden in which he encounters The Mantis, in a mysterious and brimming performance by Kyoko Kagawa, an enigmatic patient that no one but Red Beard can doctor.
In one of the film's most emotional chapters, Yasumoto, subsequent to falling ill, is nurtured to health by the tending and warmth of a 12 year old girl who he and Red Beard have saved from a brothel in a spectacularly entertaining scene involving a choreographed fight that no matter how unexpected is not one bit incongruous.In the course of his interpretation of Red Beard's empathy and a chain of impoverished patients, Dr. Yasumoto gathers the most precious knowledge he could ever ascertain as a doctor.
I am speaking collectively of his performances in Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Drunken Angel, Stray Dog, I Live In Fear, High and Low and others, but in Red Beard, he has reached that point that can only be so apparent with age, one of great wisdom and understanding of personal compromise..
Red Beard is a defining film in the Akira Kurosawa filmography as it was his last film to be shot in black and white as well as his last teaming with Toshiro Mifune, one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century.
While under his tutelage, the young doctor Yashumoto learns much about what it means to care for people and see them not as objects to overcome but as flesh and blood that need affection and care in order to bring them to full health.In my opinion, Red Beard is one of the very best Kurosawa has to offer.
RED BEARD is a drama film about the relationship between a doctor and his trainee in a rural clinic.
Finally, he learns what being a doctor really means...Mr. Kurosawa has brought several moving stories through a great photography and the changes in human behavior.
Yūzō Kayama as Dr. Noboru Yasumoto is an arrogant and immature young man who gradually learns about his work, but much more about life.Terumi Niki as Otoyo is a mistreated girl from a brothel who has changed the flow of the story.
Certainly not a samurai picture, but not quite one of Kurosawa's melodramas, Red Beard is situated somewhere between the two, moving almost like an action movie while focused primarily on human stories of hardship and trauma.
While this film never appears in the all time best off lists of films (where films such as Seven Samurai and Rashomon usually appear in the first spots), Red Beard is perhaps one of the most powerful Kurosawa films.
I would rate this as the second best drama that Kurosawa did, after Ikiru, though this film is more complex, featuring several sub-plots and many different characters.
The story will move you to tears, the acting is subtle and nuanced, the lighting is at times startling, and the editing, camera-work and sound design are perfect and on occasion iconoclastic.Kurosawa takes the story of a young, proud doctor apprenticed to a gruff genius at a poor persons' clinic, and weaves around it humanistic tales of tragedy and spirit.
Red Beard certainly lacks some of the urgency in Kurosawa's best-known films, proceeding at a stately pace in nearly three hours running time.Throughout the film we witness a series of episodes that shed light on the lives of the patients suffering within the walls of the hospital.
The final episode involving the rescue of Otoyo and the fate of the boy thief, is the most fully developed of the episodes within the film and in itself delivers moments of both intense joy and tragedy.In a definite nod to the martial roles usually played by Toshiro Mifune, his character, Red Beard, is involved in one spectacular melee during the film, which had me wincing one moment and laughing out loud the next.
Akira Kurosawa, behind the veneer of directing a few of Japan's most well-known/received action films (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Hidden Fortress), was also a master at finding the right touches in drama.
It's a film shot in black and white, but it deals with characters that will always be out there, the good and the bad, the under-privileged and those who are not.But besides the themes that Kurosawa and his writers have underneath, he tells an interesting, if somewhat familiar, story of the young being brought into a world by the experienced.
But then he gets drawn in bit by bit, starting with an encounter with a mentally-damaged woman (Kyôko Kagawa, who assists in making their one scene one of Kurosawa's absolute best), and observes Red Beard at work.
Then, when a girl (Miyuki Kuwano) is struck with a fever under a repressive mother, Yamamoto takes her under his care, leading into the second half of the film.It would be one thing if Kurosawa decided to focus squarely on the relationship between Niide and Yamamoto, but because he is more interested in certain stories with the patients, so is the audience.
There is a tendency for some Japanese actors to take it a little to far into the over-reaching, but her work here is far from that.I was emotionally moved by Red Beard, and in a way that some films just can't do.
The heart of this excellent and final Kurosawa/Mifune collaboration is the transformation of the young doctor from a cocky and arrogant intern interested mainly in prestige and advancement (he plans on being the Shogun's personal physician) to a doctor who's primary goal is to provide medical treatment and emotional support to the poor people who rely on a public clinic.
masterful actor Toshiro Mifune is the almost mystical wise Red Beard - the lead doctor in a small town full of peasants and generally lower class, where his presence affects everyone like a god...
there's still so much of his catalog i have to explore as well as re-watch (Seven Samurai, Sanjiro, Yojimbo for starters), this was his last film with his star actor Mifune but I'm slowly coming to grasp that Kurosawa has many masterpieces (not just a couple like most greats do) & one of the true greats of cinema....
A special mention goes to the child actors who were simply superb, one scene near the end was especially moving and I think it even made me shed a tear or two.Another masterpiece from Kurosawa and for me, it firmly places him as the greatest film maker of all time.
This aspect of the movie can be attributed to Kurosawa's influence on Scorsese and is seen in the film "Red Beard".
The young girl is the same exact age as Iris in Scorsese's film as well.One of "Red Beards" most important cinematic themes is the rescue of this girl and her realization that there is better to life.
I love Akira Kurasawa and his movies, and while not among his best like Seven Samurai, Ran, Throne of Blood, Hidden Fortress, Ikiru, Rashomon, Yojimbo and High and Low, it is an interesting film.
Red Beard is a great example of Kurosawa's skills: he has an outstanding cast, superb cinematography, and a fascinating story about pre-modern Japanese medicine that is episodic but riveting.
This movie, signified yet lasted.The film signifies the beauty and amazing collaborator attempts and successes of director Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune.
The best example is in a scene close to the end.To set the scene, the young doctor played by Yuzo Kayamo has almost completed his transformation from a sceptical, arrogant apprentice to a humane, loyal disciple under the eccentric but effective training of the head of the hospital played by Toshiro Mifune.
''Red Beard'' is a beautiful story and also a lesson of life.Noboru Yasumoto, a recent graduated Doctor who wishes to work for Shoguns, is assigned to work in a simple clinic, full of poor people.
Also Dr. Niide, played by the great actor Toshiro Mifune, helps Yasumoto to understand the patients and the meaning of the word 'doctor'.
Kurosawa is probably my favorite all time director, but I have found that some of his 2+ hour movies tend to get a little long in the tooth before all is said and done (excepting the superb Seven Samurai.) However, I was pleasantly surprised.
A young and headstrong Dr. Noboru Yasumoto who has trained in Europe seeks a position as a personal doctor to an important official in 19th century Japan, instead he is assigned to a rural clinic under Dr. Kyojio Niide (Toshiro Mifune) who is known as Red Beard and perceived to be an autocratic administrator.
"Red Beard" is one of director Akira Kurosawa's best films.
Through the use of a haughty young doctor from a rich family who arrives at Red Beard's combination clinic/hospital, the director is able to show the nobility of the poor.
But what keeps Red Beard from the first rank of Kurosawa's films, I think, is the sentimental moralizing, the insistence of having the characters "learn lessons." Yasumoto, having learned his initial lesson about valuing the lives of the poor, is given a young patient, Otoyo (Terumi Niki), rescued from a brothel where she has essentially gone feral.
"Red Beard" is the last of Kurosawa's black and white movies, and the final movie of the 16 film collaborations between Mifune and Kurosawa (Where they stood remained ambivalent, yet something of a reconciliation happened between them at Director.
The young doctor also encounters and delves into the various life's of each patient, who all have very emotionally raw human tales of existentialism.In many ways "Red Beard" is Kurosawa's underrated gem.
Toshiro Mifune's character is also downplayed a lot, which actually benefits everyone else's screen time and makes it all feel like the movie wasn't driven just by a renowned actor.Final Verdict: Even after all those production problems, "Red Beard" is a heartwarming and somewhat affirming hospital drama that holds up wonderfully.