Red Beard

• Toshirō Mifune: Dr. Kyojio Niide, " Akahige "
• Yuzo Kayama: Dr. Noboru Yasumoto
• Kyoko Kagawa: " The Mantis " or "Crazy Woman "
• Terumi Niki: Otoyo

Redbeard (赤ひげ, Akahige ) is a film by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa from the year 1965.

Redbeard is the film adaptation of a story by Shugoro Yamamoto. Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel Humiliated and Insulted the idea for the plot of a young girl is rescued from a brothel. Kurosawa refers Dostoyevsky ideas for another movie Hakuchi (from: The Idiot ). " Redbeard " highlights the problem of social injustice and explores two of Kurosawa's favorite themes: existential humanism and existentialism. ( See also: Ikiru, Dersu Uzala )

Redbeard is 185 minutes long and was recorded with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and for the first time with magnetic 4-track stereo sound. It is the last film Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune in which occurs. He is also the last black-and-white film Kurosawa.

Action

The film takes place in Edo ( now Tokyo ) in the 19th century. Dr. Noboru Yasumoto was moved to a rural hospital to complete his postgraduate medical training under the guidance of Dr. Kyojio Niide, Akahige. Yasumoto, who was trained in Dutch medical schools to be the personal physician of the Japanese Shogun, is outraged by this displacement - what he has to gain from Akahige?

The protagonist, Dr. Yasumoto, is an arrogant young medical doctor to be is preparing physician to the Shogun. Dr. Niide appear as a tyrannical ruler, is in reality a compassionate hospital director. Dr. Yasumoto feels that Dr. Niide was only interested in his medical records and soon rebelled against the clinic director. At first he refuses to wear his uniform, disdains the food and spartan surroundings and enters the forbidden garden where he " The Mantis ", a mysterious patient who can only treat Dr. Niide, true.

Through his observation of Dr. Niides pity and a number of helpless patients Dr. Yasumoto learns what it really means to be a doctor: the life of the patient are more important than wealth and status. Their suffering can be alleviated through his compassion and his care.

Others

• The shooting lasted two years.
• The attention to detail in the construction of the hospital went so far that at the direction of Kurosawa exactly the kind of aged wood began, which would have been used in the region and at the time where the movie was playing.
• According to the DVD commentary by Stephen Prince, it is the only film Kurosawa, occurs in the nudity.