Red Beard (1965) [w/Commentary]

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writers: Masato Ide (screenplay), Hideo Oguni (screenplay)
Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Yûzô Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki

This Akira Kurosawa film tells the tale of young Dr. Yasumoto, a recent medical graduate assigned to a rural clinic for his post-graduate medical training. Yasumoto is condescending and arrogant–he is livid that he, who aspires to join the team of physicians caring for the Japanese Shogunate, should have to train in Dr. Niide's spartan clinic serving the impoverished local population. He finds Dr. Niide, known as 'Red Beard', a demanding taskmaster with a brusque manner and intense devotion to his patients. Niide requires nothing less than a monastic lifestyle of his interns. However, gradually Yasumoto is changed by his exposure to Red Beard. He learns the true meaning of being a doctor, seeing patients as real people who are suffering and as individuals whose lives he can improve and heal with his care.



Audio commentary by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince

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