Red Beard (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

When critics and film buffs talk about the legendary Akira Kurosawa, they usually focus on how he influenced American cinema, or his deep philosophical undertones. While those topics merit discussion (and books), I think those same critics and film buffs forget to mention just how entertaining Kurosawa was. You can spend months dissecting each brilliant camera shot and subtle ideals, but what about those precious hours where all you have to do is watch the screen? To appreciate Akira Kurosawa's impact on cinema requires you to believe a very simple truth: "There is more than one way to be excited, to be moved, and to be entertained."If you can accept that principle and are ready to challenge your moviegoing senses, then the work of Kurosawa will possibly change your life as it has mine. I'm not gonna call Kurosawa the greatest filmmaker who ever lived, because a couple of his pieces (particularly his latest work) just don't do it for me. But I will say that when the Japanese legend managed to reach me, no other filmmaker inspired me more as a person. My favorite example is RED BEARD, a very gentle and uplifting story of loyalty, maturity, friendship, and hundreds of other synonyms I could throw at you.During the opening credits, you think you know what you're getting into. The gentle music, the peaceful shots of calm rooftops, the sounds of nature...at the outset, you're right. RED BEARD begins as sentimental as its musical score implies. The peaceful tone continues as we're introduced to the young Dr. Yasumoto, a brilliant intern who instead of being sent to practice at a prestigous government office, is assigned to a poor village. Yasumoto is to work under Dr. Niide, a man who's basically the mentor we all wish we could have. Niide (aka "Red Beard") is firm, wise, strong, and patient. RED BEARD's main story is Yasumoto's appreciation for life and humility.Of course, like any great film, RED BEARD gradually reveals layer after layer, theme after theme, character after character, & brilliant scene after brilliant scene. What I want to make clear is that RED BEARD isn't just a character drama. It's a jack-of-all-trades. There are several harrowing scenes where the doctors have to treat patients, none of them excessive or overly grotesque. The story is romantic, but in a believable and respectable way. There are even a few scenes of violence: one a suspenseful attack, the other an unexpected fight sequence. I promise you that while the choregraphy of the violence is thrilling, the aftermath to each is even more of pleasure to watch. RED BEARD also briefly addresses issues like class politics and domestic values.Kurosawa often explored the different classes in his films, but in most of his samurai films, he was incredibly cynical about the tension between them. Contrary to American sociology, the lower class is often reviled more in his films than the upper class. Although no character in a Kurosawa flick was perfect, we often sympathized with the stronger protagonists, rather than the weaker subordinates. Another Kurosawa norm is the "overacting"; detractors sometimes can't get into Kurosawa's films because the actors seem to 'speak' their emotions rather than 'perform' their behavior.RED BEARD breaks these traditions. The performances are more grounded and less theatrical. The tone is generally light; the tunnel never gets dark without a light at the end of it. And frankly, I don't think I've ever been more moved by a story in my entire life. There's a perfectly-executed sequence in the middle act, where two souls heal each other in the most unusual way. To give away the rest would be unfair to you, but even if you read the entire plot, RED BEARD wouldn't be any better or worse for you.Most of RED BEARD's detractors focus on its time length. The film is 185 minutes long. It might be a few minutes too long, but then again there's no such thing as a perfect film. Kurosawa isn't in any hurry to tell his story, but that doesn't mean he didn't pace himself. If everything I've read about Kurosawa's techniques is true - and I believe they are - no filmmaker showed more discipline to his craft than Kurosawa. Even respected greats like Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, and Sidney Lumet would tell you no other filmmaker was more dedicated or selective with his style. There are thousands of classics with worse flaws; RED BEARD's flaws are literally a matter of minutes.The Criterion DVD includes only two extras. First is a theatrical trailer, which honestly isn't anything special other than a peek at 1960s movie marketting. But the other bonus - and I do mean BONUS - is a stunning feature-length commentary track by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince. I've listened to this man speak on 6 Kurosawa films' DVDs, and this is just as great as his other tracks. He analyzes shot sequences, historical background, behind-the-scenes issues, scene composition, philosophy, & hundreds of other factoids I can't remember. Prince talks endlessly throughout the film, but not because he loves the sound of his own voice. He keeps speaking because he knows that 185 minutes isn't enough time to do RED BEARD justive. Simply put, Stephen Prince knows how to turn a skeptic into a believer. Trust me, I've walked away lukewarm from a couple Kurosawa "classics", only to have Prince challenge my criticisms.RED BEARD's plot description doesn't look like much on the surface, but no summary does any film justice. What should persuade you to check out RED BEARD is how it's inspired and moved the curious few who've watched it. The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) reports only 3000+ voters have scored this film; the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN films have over 100,000 votes each. It's lost masterpieces like RED BEARD that the Criterion Collection exists.Criterion sometimes releases works of art that only the most educated cryptologists and historians can apprecate --- RED BEARD is not one of them. Even though it's in black-and-white with subtitles, it's as commerical and accessible as any true classic. I'm convinced you will walk away from this film a better human being.

Kurosawa directs ToshiroMifune as senior wizened physician mentor of arrogant vain intern to learn the art of medicine Criterion Collection. Anger is shame envy misunderstanding and fear of the unfamiliar. Direct face to face contact with human beings teaches us humility. ThomasPHackett MD ChiefPsychiatry at MassachusettsGeneralHospital would say "I am a doctor first, then a psychiatrist," and "listen to the limbic music" meaning word content may be less useful than the emotional music underlying the telling.The senior doctor listens to the pain of ridicule shame envy self-hatred failed expectations and tries to befriend the hopelessness. The intern watches and learns.Red Beard is filmed Insulted and Humiliated by FyodorDostoevsky, the sadness of human pain and the attempts to comfort with caring kindness to soothe the soul. Death and Dying as an art of empathy.Dying alone may be by choice. Humans suffer from both inner and outer harm. Being safe and protected from these twin evils is a mutual journey of personal effort and external caring concern. You are not alone.Red Beard b/w with English subtitles 3 hours. Bonus 8page pamphlet, full film commentary by Kurosawa scholar.Red Beard displays the maturation of wisdom in the art of human healing as interrupted by arrogance vanity greed for power and violence toward self and others. Red Beard is similar to Departures OscarBestForeign film 2009 English subtitles which uses humor and cello meditation to metronome the progress of a man recovering from abandonment by a parent at age 6.5* Red Beard powerful story of surrogate parenting by life mentors. Family may be biological and chosen. Choose wisely.

I'm a huge Kurosawa fan. I've seen Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Ikiru, Sanshuro Sugata, Sanshuro Sugata II, and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail. Of all of those movies, Red Beard ties Seven Samurai as my favorite Kurosawa work.The plot involves a young doctor, Noboru Yasumoto, who wants to become a personal physician to the Shogunate himself, ending up at a clinic in an impoverished rural area. Upset at being transferred there, he stubbornly resists his new assignment under the head physician Dr Niide, whom everyone refers to as "Red Beard". As the movie progresses, Yasumoto comes to accept his circumstances and find fulfillment in helping people at the clinic.The movie does a great job exploring its themes. One is the relationship between hardship and sickness. A lot of people are made sick (or their sicknesses made worse) because of their poverty or other severe problems they have in their lives. One of the patients, for instance, has his story explored in depth to show how internalizing problems from the past can eat away at you as time goes on. Another one shows how unhealthy strained family relationships can be. Poverty plays an especially prominent theme, as the movie makes it obvious that a lot of these people wouldn't have these health issues if they lived in a more upscale place or had more money to afford treatment.About halfway into the movie, Red Beard and Yasumoto go to a brothel and end up rescuing a young girl who was being used as a child prostitute. Her healing is much more psychological than physical, and part of it involves her and Yasumoto becoming attached. Watching them bond is touching and brings a lot of warmth to a movie that had been very melancholy up until that point. Eventually, after she has healed, she begins helping others as well.Two of Kurosawa's favorite ideas, existentialism and humanism, are in prominent display in this film. Existentialism, in that everyone finds a purpose that keeps them driving forward. For Yasumoto, is purpose changes from selfishness to selflessness; Red Beard, of course, consistently shows selflessness. Through helping their patients they finding meaning in their own lives. Humanism, meanwhile, is shown through the power that we have to both create and solve problems as human beings. People, in all of their glory and shame, at their most and least beautiful, are what drive this movie forward.Speaking of moving forward, the pacing of this movie is slow, but engaging and intimate in a way that never has you checking your watch. This isn't a plot driven movie but a character driven one; therefore, each scene is a measured, deliberate exploration of very human characters and their interactions. Everything is done so well, you will find yourself sucked into the scene despite the calm, steady pacing that seems slow by today's standards.The movie is easily one of Kurosawa's best, and personally one of my favorite movies ever made. It may not be for everyone, but if everything you've read so far makes it sound promising, check it out. You won't be disappointed.

From the moment Toshiro Mifune did motion pictures with Akira Kurosawa, starting with Stray Dog, an important friendship and partnership occured between them. As memorable as the one between Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lars von Trier, Jean Marais and Jean Cocteau, and Diane Keaton with Woody Allen.But unlike these creative duos and friendship, the relationship between Mifune and Kurosawa ended quite abruptly following this production of Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard. The last production that Toshiro Mifune did with the director. An epic three hours story set in the world of medicine. And also his last Black-and-White motion picture.In its story, the plot concerns over young doctor Noboru Yasumoto, who wishes to be the Shogun’s physician, but ends up working in a rural clinic made to treat poor patients living in terrible conditions. Which affects his ego as he refuses to work there; expecting to use his medecine for the greater noble population.But helmed under a doctor with a strong red beard named Kyojo Niide, that hospital becomes an important class for Yasumoto; to discover and learn about caring and respecting his patients; in empathizing with their life circumstances; and in humility and generosity for others. Something that several doctors lack as they treat their business like a money machine and not like a helpful cause; and which Osamu Tezuka — a trained surgeon — also denounced in his manga series Black Jack.As he lets himself conquered by that doctor and his life philosophy, Noboru Yasumoto starts his work in the hospital; treating certain patients who need his help. And discovering various situations linked to the life reality of those patients.With this movie, Akira Kurosawa is trying to display a positive story. One where goodness and kindness prevails amidst a hard and difficult world. Changing from more dramatic stories like High and Low or The Bad Sleep Well; with their either bittersweet or tragic finales.As for Red Beard, it was filmed over two years, making it one of his most exigent productions. And in it, he built a set for the village that stands among his most impressive. A real-built village that wowed Toho’s studio visitors. A studio whose wide and realistic designs and production values reminded me of the one Michael Cimino did in Heaven’s Gate, a maligned motion picture that, over the decades, is now considered one of the best westerns ever.Like that Cimino production, Red Beard is set at three hours and is as rich as The Seven Samurai. With even a musical intermission at the middle of the story. Lasting five minutes. As for its production design, the director really tried to make sure that the props had aged and were not freshly made by designers. He also ensured that the locations really looked like they had gone through the centuries. Which reminds me a little of Carl Theodor Dreyer and his rigourous sense of realism and truth.However, as stated earlier, it is also the last film that Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa did together; due to them having arguments during filming. As explained in multiple information sources, the rigorous and constraining schedule of Red Beard affected Toshiro Mifune’s work opportunities as he was stuck in this role during the entire production and could not participate on TV shows or on movies. And as he was establishing his own production company, this situation affected his projects. Because of this, their relationship turned sour and broken for many years. Though they reconciled in the 1990s, they would not work together again. Which adds a sad note to the motion picture. Where we realize how a movie so filled with positivity and wonder ended up affecting the partnership and friendship between two pioneers in motion pictures.Nevertheless, Red Beard is an amazing movie from Akira Kurosawa that deserves a proper new release on Blu-Ray. For visually and thematically, it is one of the best movies from the director. And one with a great cinematography filmed in CinemaScope. Which allows a wider sense of view of the story, its protagonists and their locations.A wider perspective over this excellent masterpiece from the director.

Nothing wrong with the content of this video which offers audio commentary from an academic. The problem with DVDs from Amazon is the media, which doesn’t consider that some of their DVD’s will not playback on region specific DVD players in Australia like the wretched Sony units which have region coding installed in their players. So I was able to play back the movie in my bedroom while sacrificing the pleasure of being able to watch Kurosawa’s wonderful classic on the big set in my living room.This movie is I think one of Kurosawa’s finest and lesser known masterpieces. It is a great moral lesson for all of us. We see an arrogant young doctor during the course of the film being gradually pulled down by the weight of human misery, poverty and death under the wise counsel of the older doctor “Red Beard”, a thinly disguised portrait of the Samurai master we come to know in Yojimbo and Sanjuro, played by none other than Kurosawa’s actor companion Toshiro Mifune, the last film he made with Kurosawa.It’s a long film and by today’s standards might be seen as being drawn out, but this perception of the film would be a mistake because every scene, every moment of the movie is a master stroke. It communicates something very important for all of us, that the world we live in can only improve if we all understand sympathy, empathy, compassion and basic human kindness above all, and out of such human compassion we can experience joy when seeing people cured of long term suffering.The classic Kurosawa theme of the “great man” emerges in this film, which also appeared in the Samurai films. The arrogant young doctor brought under the wise tutelage of Red Beard is utterly opposed to Red Beard, his gruff manner and bluntness at first, but towards the end of the film, acknowledges Red Beard as a “great man”. I believe absolutely in Kurosawa’s brilliant moral thesis, that we must find the great ones among us to lead a community, a nation or an international organisation and only under the influence of a master, a man strong, intelligent and wise, that good things can happen. It is a very old theme but one that is unquestionably true, that it must be the shepherds among us who must lead us, however unpleasant they may appear to us at first.This film is a great study of human nature and human difficulty and demonstrates the greatest of Kurosawa’s cinematic powers. I don’t have to say Highly Recommended. It goes without saying.

A++++++++++

I just had to have a copy of it for inspiration, considering I was headed into the human services sector. It's a great period piece with many touching storylines. It reminds us all who gives service to others how good service to others is or should be rewarding.