XXV. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Akahige (Red Beard) [1965] (by Lewis Saul)]

Ed note:  For the next several weeks, composer and film aficionado Lewis Saul has agreed to supply us with in-depth commentary about the films of Akira Kurosawa, now showing in an extended festival at the Film Forum. Even if you're unable to stop by the Forum, we think Lew's insights will deepen your appreciation of these important movies.

Akahige (Red Beard) [1965]

PLAYING February 2nd at The Film Forum

This is Kurosawa's 23rd film.

This is an important film for many reasons: it's the last film in his "middle period" (approx. post-Occupation [1952] to 1965); Toshirô Mifune's 16th and final appearance in a Kurosawa film; his last black & white film; his last film of a certain kind of style and visual design (fast cutting dolly shots, etc.) and -- like Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai) [1954] -- the last film which would push the limits of what a filmmaker could do to an audience in three hours (185 minutes plus intermission -- over 3:05).

"'I had something special in mind when I made [Red Beard] because I wanted to make something . . . so magnificent that people would just have to see it.'" [Kurosawa quoted in Galbraith, p. 372].

"Set in 19th century Edo, the film is a clash between old and new. It tells the story of a young, conceited doctor, Yasumoto (Yûzô Kayama), sent by his father to visit a hospital-clinic for the poor. Here conditions are a far cry from the luxuries he enjoyed during his Dutch-influenced training in Nagasaki, and he is appalled by the dregs of human misery he finds. Paying his respects to the intimidating head of the clinic, Dr. Kyojo Niide, nicknamed 'Red Beard' (Mifune), the vain Yasumoto is shocked to learn that he has been assigned there as an intern. Through his wealthy family and various connections, Yasumoto had expected an assignment in the Imperial Court (as the Shogun's personal physician). Feeling the post far beneath his abilities, Yasumoto does everything in his power to incur the wrath of Red Beard and win his dismissal.

Gradually, however, Yasumoto begins to understand that in spite of Red Beard's stern manner, he is in fact a man of immense wisdom. it is Red Beard's belief that the only life worth living is one devoted to helping others. Despite the misery of poverty, illness, and death, it is kindness, Red Beard suggests, that ultimately begets kindness, just as evil begets evil.

In the film's second act, Yasumoto is given his first real patient, a physically abused 12-year-old girl, Otoyo (Terumi Niki), rescued by Red Beard from a syphilis-infested whorehouse. Ill in mind as well as body, the young girl steadfastly refuses to take her medication. Yasumoto calls on Red Beard for advice and watches in amazement as the wiser, older doctor patiently allows the young girl to splatter him with spoonful after spoonful of gently offered medicine before she finally, reluctantly swallows it down. Later, the young girl, still not accepting the kindness of the clinic's staff, rebels in much the same manner as Yasumoto had earlier in the story.

In the film's most important moment, Yasumoto breaks down, weeping in the realization of the cruel world he lives in, a world that would transform an innocent young girl into a bitter misanthrope. Only through a hatred and distrust of everything around her can Otoyo survive such an unbearable existence.

But Yasumoto's tears and unceasing kindness, inspired by Red Beard's treatment, gradually work on Otoyo. As she recovers, she's moved to help out at the clinic and becomes a much-loved part of the staff, a surrogate daughter, even, to the cleaning women [cooks, actually -- ls], and she in turn cares for Yasumoto when he becomes ill from overwork. Otoyo also befriends an even younger child, a poor boy, Chobo (Yoshitaka Zushi, the star of Dodesukaden [1970]), who had been stealing food from the clinic to feed his family.

In the end, Yasumoto's residency at the clinic is completed, but at his wedding he surprises his intended bride and his family with the news that, in spite of a recent appointment to the shogun's court, he has decided to remain at the clinic" [pp. 373-4].

My comments from the DVD Commentary by Stephen Prince are marked [SP].

• Production began in 1963 and lasted two years.
• The film cost $700,000 -- 10 times the cost of an average Japanese feature at that time.
• Preproduction was also a long, involved process. Kurosawa insisted (like his good friend and genius Kenji Mizoguchi, q.v.) on absolute authenticity in all things. Thus, roof tiles had to be aged just so, tea cups, even things stashed away in cupboards that are never opened! Actors and extras slept in their clothing for months before filming began to get the right look, etc.
• Richie (who wrote the DVD insert essay) puts in nicely: "To describe the look of Red Beard one should speak of something burnished and glowing, like the body of a fine cello." Perfect!
• Look at those roof tiles which you will see under the credits! You can see the aging in splotches and dark spots.
• The set was massive (underneath all those roofs)! Apparently, some sections were built which were never filmed at all.
• Prince calls this Kurosawa's 24th film! I guess he counts Asu o tsukuru hitobito (Those Who Make Tomorrow) [1946], which Kurosawa disowned and had removed from his official catalog.
• I think this film is just about perfect. "Just about" because -- in my opinion -- Kurosawa nearly ruins his own film with really terrible musical decisions. His composer, Masaru Satô, could not possibly have been completely responsible for these dreadful missteps ~ he certainly turned in fine scores for other AK films. Here then is my imaginary one-way conversation that Kurosawa might have had with his composer:
• "Ah, look Satô-san -- I want the music for this film to sound like Brahms' First Symphony and/or Beethoven's Ninth ... No, that's not quite right. Can't you make it sound even more like..." [oy vey]) ... and then later ... "Here I want Haydn's Surprise Symphony (#94), slow movement. No, of course, I don't want you to copy it exactly ... er, could you make it sound a bit more like the Haydn? Yes, yes -- that's it!!" [poor Satô] ...
• Yes sir. Done and done. [yuck] ...
• Kurosawa/Satô did make one terrific musical decision -- the score pauses during the credit sequence in order to allow us to hear the natural ambient sounds. In other words, he moves back and forth between musical comment (unfortunately terrible, in my opinion), natural cinema verité -- if you will -- and then back to the music again. Notice the little flourish again under the director's credit.
• This is the penultimate wide-screen film (2:35:1). After this, they will all be 1:33:1 except for Dersu Uzala [1975] (playing February 4th).
• Other than Seven Samurai, this is the only Kurosawa film which contains an intermission.
• Kurosawa wrote this screenplay with three other writers: Ryûzô Kikushima, Hideo Oguni and Masato Ide.
• The main source is the novel Akahige shinryô (Red Beard) by Shûgorô Yamamoto. However, the important second-half character of Otoyo was created to try and show what Dostoevsky had done with the character of Nelli in The Insulted and the Injured.
• Notice the three-cut sequence which introduces Mifune!
• 0:15:52. Check out the fast cutting dolly shots here! Really technical and incredibly effective!
• 0:21:10. The famous "continuity error" as SP calls it ... telephoto lens and 90º cuts (see Richie for a complete description of this! -- it has to do with the differences in distance between the characters as the telephoto shots change from cut to cut) ...
• 0:23:51. Gradually, Kurosawa introduces us to his usual gang of incredible character actors -- here we meet a relatively new one, Tsutomu Yamazaki, playing Sahachi, the saint. Yamazaki was the kidnapper in Tengoku to jigoku (High and Low) [1963], and perhaps more memorably, Goro in Itami's Tampopo!
• 0:27:10. The Mantis! (Kyôko Kagawa). Hear the wind before her appearance?
• 0:27:37. Another "continuity" problem. This one is even more obvious than the herb garden scene! (Look at the different distances between the two in both cuts.) [SP]
• This entire take is one long five minute plus cut!
• Prince's discussion on Kurosawa's camera movements in this scene are required listening! Look how he re-frames the actors with each slight push in! [SP]
• Ditto re: Kurosawa's use of wind. [SP]
• The long take is finally delivered of a cut. "She's got him!" says SP in the commentary! It's true -- at that very moment of the first cut in over five minutes, she begins to wrap her obi around him ... he is doomed! [SP]
• 0:39:00. I chuckle a bit every time we get to this scene. Rokusuke (Kamatari Fujiwara) is dying. He makes some sounds, but has no dialogue. Thus, my chuckle. Fujiwara was famous for having difficulties when it came to memorizing dialogue!
• 0:46:13. The first and only scene of nudity in a Kurosawa film! Not very sexy, is it? However, there is a referential dynamic here which is explained in the commentary [SP].
• "Surgery of the red hairs." The first time I heard this term -- in other words, a Japanese physician who has studied with the Dutch. [SP]
• 0:53:08. 180º cut. Okuni (the gorgeous Akemi Negishi, wretched here)'s story is also a very long single take!
• 0:59:04. Red Beard mercifully lies (watch Yasumoto!) to Okuni about her father's death.
• 1:10:35. A deeply moving moment: Red Beard wants Yasumoto to remind him the next time he gets arrogant. Watch Yasumoto's face just before this when Red Beard slyly suggests that it was wrong of him to "hint" about blackmailing the magistrate. You can see his new found respect for the doctor in his face!
• 1:13:00. Prince calls this section "some of the most exquisite filmmaking of his entire career, particularly in the use of sound -- the snow, the wind on the chimes." [SP]
• The painting backdrop during Sahachi's flashback with Onaka (Miyuki Kuwano) is pretty fake-looking.
• In the Tokagawa era, I believe that most women's name begins with an "O." I really do not know why.
• 1:17:00. The earthquake. Kurosawa was 13 when the Kantō earthquake struck on September 1, 1923.
• 1:21:50. Look how the two star-crossed lovers keep turning towards each other just as the other person turns away. Another example of Kurosawa's "just missed it by a second" commentary on the role of fate and moments of chance ...
• 1:23:00. Onaka's suicide is a long four-minute plus take with several axial cuts thrown in ...
• 1:30:22. Axial cut in and then out, as she forces Sahachi to assist her suicide ...
• 1:31:18. Wow. Look at that composition -- a bunched group all in black with Sahachi brightly lit dying face shining like a saint!
• 1:33:00. The big turning point in the film -- Yasumoto puts on his uniform! Note the wind chime from Sahachi's story at the end of the long corridor!
• 1:40:18. Earlier, we learned how Red Beard basically blackmailed the magistrate for the money which he used to pay Goheiji (Eijirô Tôno) to give Okuni and her children a place to stay -- but we never saw the action take place; it was all told by Red Beard after it happened.
• Here, however, Kurosawa lets us watch Red Beard in action, as he more or less extorts another rich lord for money -- the big fat Matsudaira (Nobuo Chiba). Two Kurosawa regulars enter the picture here for what amounts to cameo appearances for each.
• First is Kô Nishimura as a clan retainer, shocked when he hears Red Beard ask for 50 ryo payment! (Notice, however, that ultimately Red Beard is paid 30 ryo. No mention is given for the discount.)
• Next enters Takashi Shimura who plays another (probably more important) clan retainer, Tokubei Izumiya. With a smart, sardonic tone, he tries to put down Red Beard and doctors in general with his caustic comments, but Red Beard more or less ignores him. The scene is over and that's it for Shimura in this film! He will appear in only one more -- his 21st and final film with Kurosawa: Kagemusha (The Double/Shadow Warrior) [1980]. Even that minor role was almost erased from history. In the original USA version of the film, his scenes were cut! They were only restored upon the release of the international version, which can now be enjoyed on the Criterion DVD.
• A very detailed history of prostitution in this time period is a welcome addition in the commentary -- the average contemporary American filmgoer will find Otoyo's situation distressing enough on screen. But in reality, things were actually much worse! [SP]
• "The mortality records of 21,000 prostitutes in Asakusa who died from 1743 to 1801 show that most died in their 20's." [SP]
• The brothel madam (Haruko Sugimura) appears in one other Kurosawa picture -- Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for Our Youth) [1946]. Sugimura was an Ozu regular who appeared in nine of his films between 1949 and 1962. There is a wonderful anecdote about her asking Ozu during the filming of Tôkyô monogatari (Tokyo Story) [1953] what her character's "motivation" should be ... Ozu answered her, "your motivation is that I'm paying you to act."
• 2:04:19. Here begins an amazing long section of seven scenes which Kurosawa will separate with dissolves rather than wipes. I believe there are two major reasons for this -- to break up the monotony of the artificiality of the wipe; and to use the dissolve for the purpose of softening things. The first scene begins ...
• • [diary]: " ... that night she spoke for the first time." He makes her some soup. She knocks the bowl out of his hand and he cries for her.
  • "February 12th. Otoyo was gone again this morning. She wasn't in the clinic. I went to look for her." 
  • Being outside the clinic is unusual enough to merit special attention to the scene. Kurosawa is unusually detailed here: as the wind and dust blow, Yasumoto frantically looks for Otoyo as people pass in and out of the frame. He spots her on the bridge, begging for money. (This is almost verbatim from the Dostoevsky.)
  • He moves over to get a better look at her, and the left side of the frame captures some fishermen pulling in their net.
  • Take a good look at that store that she enters to buy the new bowl. Can you imagine all the detail that went into that set design -- and the shot is so distant that you can barely see anything! But you feel it! [SP]
  • 2:09:22. Yasumoto humbly begs Otoyo for her forgiveness. He worries that she may think that he was angry at her for breaking the bowl -- which he was not -- but yet he continues to apologize profusely. She lets go of her pain and is transformed!
• dissolve #1
• • 2:10:00. The second scene begins with Red Beard reading Yasumoto's Otoyo diary.
  • I see an interesting parallelism here: just as Yasumoto needlessly apologizes to Otoyo for something he did not do, Red Beard apologizes to Yasumoto for "stealing" his Nagasaki notes and drawings (Yasumoto had hinted as much earlier) ... naturally, the young doctor is ashamed of his previous behavior!
• dissolve #2
• • 2:13:22. Yasumoto is sick -- exhausted -- and Otoyo is caring for him -- Red Beard's idea of therapy. She wets a washcloth for his forehead and scampers into a corner when she realizes that he is staring at her.
• dissolve #3
• • 2:14:01. Again their eyes meet, and she doesn't scurry away immediately. But the intensity becomes too great, and she quickly moves to another corner. Here, Kurosawa shines another key light in her eyes as he had earlier -- she moves to the exact spot where the light hits her eyes in just the right way.
• dissolve #4
• • 2:15:18. A magical scene. Yasumoto opens his eyes to see Otoyo scrubbing the floor again. It appears she has reverted to her previous psychotic behavior -- but Kurosawa fools us! In a few seconds, we see that she is very relaxed, and is just cleaning routinely. She opens the window and we see a soft snowfall (notice how the dissolves help achieve a feeling here?). The music begins. [cough] Haydn via Satô via Kurosawa. Or something.
  dissolve #5
• • 2:16:43. She adds some snow to melt in the water. They smile at each other.
• dissolve #6
• • 2:17:54. He asks for water. He never actually gets any, as Otoyo backs away and seems shy and uncertain -- but no longer terrified or "scalded." (Other than his asking for water, this entire sequence is eight minutes of film without dialogue!) [see Nora inu {Stray Dog} |1949|] ...
• dissolve #7
• • 2:18:56. Another scene borrowed from the Dostoevsky, as Otoyo begins to leaf through Yasumoto's medical texts, unfolding diagrams, curious ... he watches all of this silently, as -- exhausted -- Otoyo keeps dropping off, waking up again, until she finally falls asleep, as does he.
• dissolve #8
• • 2:21:01. Yasumoto awakes. Otoyo is sleeping peacefully on his stomach. She awakes. He thanks her for nursing him back to health. The film reprises a kind of "reality" that this dreamlike sequence had temporarily interrupted.
• 2:29:00. Prince points out another "continuity" problem here in the 90º angle switch.
• 2:32:00. With 152 minutes having transpired, Kurosawa decides it is time for a brand new -- and rather important -- character: Chobo. Red Beard and Yasumoto are nowhere to be seen for much of the remainder of the film, as Otoyo and Chobo gradually take over the story. This kind of great, non-linear writing will become something of a feature in his final period films. His next film, Dodesukaden, is a film with a completely non-linear structure. 
• Zushi (Chobo) is unbelievable. He was seven or eight years old! Check out the extras on Dodesukaden for the story about how his mother told Kurosawa that there was no way he could handle the lead on that film as a 15-year-old. Kurosawa retorted, "your son is playing the part, not you!" If the mother had actually seen her young son's performance here, I can't imagine how she could have thought that! Chobo is not a huge part -- but it requires some real acting chops -- and this young kid brought his A-game to the show!
• 2:39:00. This scene of the cooks saving their rice for Chobo is similar to the scene in Seven Samurai where Kyuzo and Katsushiro are saving their rice for the wretched grandmother ...
• Before the final Chobo & Family "episode," we have the short Osugi (the lovely Reiko Dan) scene with the father of the Mantis which is followed by delicious sweet revenge when the brothel madam shows up to collect Otoyo, and is beaten by the cooks! Both scenes are relative "uppers" compared to what is coming. (We learn that the Mantis is actually "getting better.")
• Look at this: 2:45:35 -- Otoyo is walking over to talk to Chobo. As SP points out, Chobo is sitting morosely looking like one of those jars he's sitting next to! An amazing composed moving shot!
• I repeat: young Zushi is really good here!
• 2:47:50. A wonderful parallel between a very early scene -- the three physicians in their dining room! The last time we saw this, Yasumoto was a cranky, obstinate, stuck-up kid! Look at him now! Kurosawa's characters really do transform before your eyes in a very powerful way, especially in long films like this where they are so fully developed. Hear the wind again?
• 2:48:29. Beginning with this scene in the pharmacy -- where Yasumoto and Mori (Yoshio Tsuchiya) are grinding herbs (fascinating) -- Kurosawa uses very long takes in only three cuts (8:15 total). This first cut is about 1:45; at 2:50:15 a right wipe follows the direction of the cook as she leaves the room and we see Otoyo standing outside the room where Chobo's family are all near death (1:30); 2:51:58 -- this cut will last nearly five minutes!
• Prince discusses the technical aspects of using long lenses in situations like this where this rafter shot is the only possible set-up using such a lens. Fascinating [SP].
• Kurosawa -- widely considered a master editor -- here knows exactly where not to cut!
• 2:58:26. The Coda. There is something about the peacefulness of this scene -- the incredibly gorgeous sound of birds and nature on the soundtrack; the calm and beauty of the marriage ceremony itself (which we never see!); Yasumoto's new attitude; the beautiful bride Masae (Yôko Naitô) and her sister, Chigusa (Yôko Fujiyama) -- about whom Yasumoto had been so selfish, previously -- it all combines to create a magnificent atmosphere of striking beauty -- especially after the dark and dismal look of the clinic.
• Part of that calmness is casting: Yasumoto's mother (Kinuyo Tanaka) and father (Chishû Ryû) are both magnificent actors in very minor parts here. SP speaks at length about the Ryû casting on the DVD.
• The film ends where it begins -- at the gate of the clinic. Goodbye, Red Beard. Goodbye, young Yasumoto -- your life will be great! Goodbye, Akira Kurosawa (1943-1965), who did not die, but would continue to make films for 28 more years. But something died -- and we bid a fond adieu to a style, a gargantuan artistic catalog of amazement -- which -- thank God -- we can still take a look at from time to time or as often we wish -- in the form of a wonderful-to-look-at Criterion DVD.
• Listen to the sounds of nature (+ some music) under the main menu of the DVD! [These things are usually on a short loop -- this one is pretty long!] Leave it on while you work! You'll be amazed at how peaceful you will feel!
• Three things that conspired to end Kurosawa's career as filmmaker: 1) television; 2) James Bond movies; and 3) ereki (pop music with electric guitars).
• There are 26 wipes in this film, all horizontal (19l/7r).