List Price: $39.95You Pay Only: $29.99 You Save: $9.96 (25%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Image Entertainment
EAN: 9780780025769
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0780025768
Label: Home Vision Entertainment
Manufacturer: Home Vision Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Home Vision Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 16, 2002
Running Time: 185 minutes
Sales Rank: 18514
Studio: Home Vision Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: December 19, 1968
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Editorial Review:
Description:
A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard (Akahige) chronicles the tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a compassionate clinic director. Toshiro Mifune, in his last role for Kurosawa, gives a powerhouse performance as the dignified yet empathic director who guides his pupil to maturity, teaching the embittered intern to appreciate the lives of his destitute patients. Perfectly capturing the look and feel of 19th-century Japan, Kurosawa weaves a fascinating tapestry of time, place, and emotion.
Amazon.com:
Featuring the final collaboration between esteemed director Akira Kurosawa (Kagemusha, The Seven Samurai) and actor Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo, Hell in the Pacific), this 1965 film explores the complex and tumultuous relationship between a doctor and his protégé, and the meaning of compassion and responsibility. Mifune plays the title character, a revered but stern and unbendable physician ministering to the poor in a clinic, driven by a sense of calling to the profession of medicine and to mankind. He is assigned a young brash intern whose rebellious and arrogant attitude threaten to disrupt the hospital and destroy his burgeoning career. Under the intense tutelage of the relentlessly stern doctor, however, the young doctor in training goes from a spoiled wunderkind insulted at having to work at a clinic he thinks is beneath him, to one who appreciates the compassionate nature of a doctor's calling. A long, intimate, and engrossing film, it displays some of Mifune's finest work as a man whose profound sense of higher purpose touches all around him. An earnest exploration of duty and honor, Red Beard is an unlikely but worthy addition to the enduring legacy of Akira Kurosawa. --Robert Lane
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Red Beard
"Red Beard" is not only one of my favorite Kurosawa films, but it also ranks as one of my favorite movies period. Though Toshiro Mifune always gets a lot of the attention when talking about Kurosawan performances, for me the best acting in "Red Beard" comes from Yuzo Kayame as the arrogant hotshot doctor, Yasumoto. He plays a doctor in 19th century Japan who has just come from extensive schooling in all the latest medical practices, toting with him all his prized drawings and notes. He is expecting to serve at court, a prize appointment, but instead unwittingly finds himself as an intern in a sometimes squalid public clinic run by the imperfect, yet esteemed, Dr. Niide, aka Red Beard. Piqued, Yasumoto at first refuses to participate; instead, he attempts to break all the rules so as to get himself kicked out of the clinic and away from these wretched sick and poor folk. What ends up happening, though, is a slow evolution in his character as he is brought out of the theoretical of his studies and face-to-face with the reality of death. (In one humorous scene, he faints when witnessing his first operation, though the entreaty to put the patient's intestines back in probably didn't help matters.) The turning point is the rescue of a young, badly abused girl from a house of ill repute. The bond formed between Yasumoto and the young Otoyo is enough to break even the most jaded heart. Otoyo's own coming-of-age in her friendship with a street urchin is so tender yet never quite crosses that line ... Read More
Rating:  - body<>mind--one sickness feeds another
The last collaboration between the legendary Kurosawa and Mifune, this is an excellent change of pace. It sounds like a pirate flick, or possibly another samurai epic. But it's actually much more personal in scope, a compassionate story with themes of healing and hope.
It takes place at a health clinic. Yasumoto is the cocky young doctor who is not too thrilled about his new assignment working with the poor. The head doctor, referred to as Red Beard, mentors him.
This film has a nice complexity, really just some superb character development. It breaks off into some episodic ventures as it explores some of the patients sordid past. These sub-plots seem a little disjointed, which is not a bad thing. Life never meshes smoothly.
There is one particular development I did not care for though. Actually I really hated it. It's a fight scene thrown in, Red Beard beats down a group of dudes, then feels remorse. I didn't think this action scene was necessary or congruent with the rest of the story. Hence my 4 star rating.
Otherwise, this is a perfect humanistic tale. I still prefer Ikiru though, but this is still a welcome addition to Kurosawa's repertoire.
Rating: - Mifune's Greatest Performance?
In his last collaboration with Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune gives possibly his best performance ever. This is a tough call to make because so many of his performances are so incredible. Just in his collaborations with Kurosawa he delivered command performances in Red Beard, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo. Yuzo Kayama delivers a comparably excellent performance as an apprentice doctor who matures from a conceited youngman into a humble, compassionate doctor under Red Beard's quiet tutelage. In fact, the acting is excellent throughout. Red Beard is one of Kurosawa's few movies to feature several excellent roles for actresses and the performers all rise to the occassion.
Red Beard is a three hour, black and white Japanese drama and it is a masterpiece. Red Beard is a brilliant exercise in humanism as it touchingly displays the dignity of the lowest wretches imaginable. Mifune is a tough but compassionate director of a rural charity clinic in the 19th century who is gruff and unfeeling toward his apprentice doctors but kind and generous to his patients. His patients consist mostly of lower caste peasants and outcasts like prostitutes. The script perfectly mixes searing scenes of pathos with warmhearted light moments.
Featuring Kurosawa's trademark beautiful cinematography, thanks largely to reknown cinematographer Asakazu Nakai, Red Beard took two years to film mostly due to Kurosawa's meticulous attention to detail. Kurosawa was a master craftsman ... Read More
Rating: - Can A Film Change Your Life?
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 ... Read More
Rating: - Red Beard - Criterion Collection
Mifune should have and could have had a bigger role and this would have made the film better. They did not give him enough to do and this diminished the picture.
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