Event Details
Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune’s grand marathon of collaborations, which yielded numerous masterpieces, faces its finish line with a three-hour exploration of moral values and existential contemplation of humankind, led by another heartfelt performance by Mifune as a humble and compassionate clinic director, aka Red Beard. He, welcomes a young doctor, Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama), into his small-town practice, only to discover that his protégé is arrogant, blinded by ambition, and reluctant to serve patients with low social standing. Kurosawa examines humanity with a thoughtful gaze, gently excavating the innate goodness of humankind through lessons from both life and death.
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.
1965 | 185 min. | Japan | Black-and-White | Japanese with English subtitles | Not Rated | 35mm.
DIRECTED BY: Akira Kurosawa
WRITTEN BY: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima, Masato Ide
BASED ON A STORY BY: Shugoro Yamamoto
WITH: Toshiro Mifu