Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard (1965; Akahige) might intimidate with its three hour length. But this drama, the last film Kurosawa would make in black and white, and with regular collaborator and star Toshiro Mifune, is a beautiful, moving experience. Set in the 19th century in Koshikawa, it is basically a medical drama focused on the young, brash doctor Dr. Noboru Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama) who was expecting a high position as the personal physician to the Shogunate. Yet he has been assigned to a rural clinic presided over by Dr Niide (Mifune) nick named “Red Beard” due to the colour of his facial hair. The lengthy running time allows us to see the slow journey and transformation of Yasumoto from his opening arrogance (refusing to wear the doctor’s uniform) to gradually understanding the importance of giving care and consideration to those who are poor and dying. Structurally the film unfolds like a series of short stories as different patients enter the picture and open up about their lives, and hovering at the edges is the wise, gruff, self-critical Red Beard in a great, charismatic performance by Mifune. The use of framing and lighting is masterful in the way the relationships between characters are maintained spatially, or the emotion of a scene is heightened by how it is lit (for example, a young, orphaned girl, Oyoto, who is taken into Yasumoto’s care and whose haunted, sickly face is lit by a single beam of light). Masaru Sato’s score often sounds very collegial, like what you’d hear at a graduation ceremony, which at its centre, this film is. I remember a Roger Ebert quote about what makes him cry at the movies is less about sad things occuring on screen and more watching humans do good things; this film has that quality and my tears welled up a few times at the open display of compassion and humanity. I was also surprised (and delighted) that even in a three hour drama about human compassion, Kurosawa includes a sequence with Mifune whomping a bunch of thugs in a village square. I really loved this movie and its overall effect. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 