Amazon.com essential video: The Bad Sleep Well tells the story of corruption at the highest levels of Japanese business and its tragic consequences. Though flawed by a tedious introductory sequence and by an ending that seems out of sync with the story, it is a fascinating movie and the middle part is especially exciting.
Japanese legend Toshiro Mifune plays Koichi Nishi, the seemingly stoic bridegroom who is trying to get ahead by marrying the boss's daughter, Kieko (Kyoko Kagawa), who was crippled as a girl. The bride's brother, in a shocking display, exposes the groom's motives during his wedding toast and threatens his new brother-in-law with death if he disappoints his sister. But Nishi is not who we think. He was born the illegitimate son of the man who Kieko's father, Iwabuchi (Maysayuki Mori), manipulated into suicide. Now Nishi wants revenge for his father's death. As Nishi slowly destroys Iwabuchi's life, he makes the fatal error of falling in love with his wife, who already loves him. Their unconsummated marriage stands between these two like a palpable pillar of stone. But just when we think the stone has been tossed aside by love, Iwabuchi finds out who his son-in-law really is.
Shot in black and white, this film falls just short of being brilliant. Mifune is amazing in his portrayal of this complex man who lets his father's past destroy his own future, and Maysayuki Mori's performance as the evil Iwabuchi is understated but nonetheless chilling. --Luanne Brown
Great Akira Kurosawa's 1960 black and white film, The Bad Sleep Well (Warui Yatsu Hodo Yoku Nemuru), is often compared to William Shakespeare's Hamlet, but it's an inapt comparison for, while Shakespeare's play has a higher sense of poetry, Kurosawa's film has far more relevance, realism, and complexity, even if, like Hamlet, it's a high class melodrama. The film was written by Kurosawa and four collaborators- Shinobu Hashimoto, Eijirô Hisaita, Ryuzo Kikushima, and Hideo Oguni. Because it has Shakespearean pedigree, and is not set in medieval Japan, this film has not gotten its proper due, in comparison with the classics that Kurosawa made earlier in his career, such as Rashomon, Ikiru, and Seven Samurai. But, it should, for, despite its melodramatic bent, and film noir roots- heightened by Masaru Sato's wonderful soundtrack, which alternates the darkness of certain moments with almost carnivalesque music, the film is superbly paced and well written, for within the film's opening sequences at a corporate wedding, fully Westernized with a Here Comes The Bride rendition, covered by the jackal-like press- reminiscent of the paparazzi in the prior year's Federico Fellini masterpiece La Dolce Vita, ready to pounce on any irregularity, because of a budding scandal, and the subsequent brilliant montage of newspaper headlines that puts those used by Hollywood in pre-World War Two gangster films to shame, the bulk of the film's narrative setup is displayed, and allowed to unravel for the next two hours, albeit almost never following the standard melodramatic arc of allowing the characters' dumbest possible actions dictate the plot. Because of this, the film's ending is both realistic, and one of the most chilling in film history. Perhaps only Dr. Strangelove's scenes of Armageddon are more chilling, however leavened by that film's final scenes' editing. The cinematography, by longtime Godzilla series mainstay Yuzuru Aizawa, is superb. The scenes where Nishi and Wada drive Shirai mad are masterful example of pure black and white cinematography that rivals the best of the masterful Carl Theodor Dreyer. And while all the acting is first rate by the supporting cast, with the usual stellar work of Takashi Shimura as Moriyama, the perfectly restrained evil of Masayuki Mori as Iwabuchi, not to mention the wonderfully over the top looniness of Kô Nishimura as Shirai, the stellar cravenness of Kamatari Fujiwara as Wada, the semi-incestuous off kilter performance of Tatsuya Mihashi as Tatsuo, and the hammy enigmatic performance of Takeshi Katô as Itakura (the real Nishi), this film belongs to Toshirô Mifune as Nishi (the real Itakura), for, unlike his wildly over the top-however terrific, work in Rashomon and Seven Samurai, he truly gets to display the full range of his acting chops in his boiling rages- he declares, when trying to toss Shirai out the same window his father fell from, `Even now they sleep soundly, with grins on their faces. I won't stand for it! I can never hate them enough!', his hiding of them as a corporate secretary, his acts of kindness that ultimately do him in, and in his love tenderly restrained scenes with Yoshiko, especially one where he tells of how his obsession with his father after his death is only matched by the hatred he felt for the man before his death. His internalized anguish allows Mifune to act with small gestures, not grand ones, and scenery chewing gives way to real emoting. Of the three roles I've seen him in, this is his best....easily. It takes a good half hour of the film's unfolding, though, before Nishi even emerges as the film's central character, and puppetmaster- although, ultimately, he is no match for Iwabuchi, who's been doing it longer and better. That's how much confidence Kurosawa has in his filmic and narrative talents, for imagine a Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts film going a half hour into the plot without a major scene for them. Mifune was that big a star in his day, but the film is always bigger. The DVD, by The Criterion Collection, is shown in a 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, but lacks an English soundtrack, Considering the tremendous amount of white in the film, especially in the wedding scenes, the white subtitles are very difficult to read. There's also a trailer, and a thirty-three minute episode of the Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful To Create documentary series on the making of this film. The insert includes two essays- one by Chuck Stephens, of Film Comment, and one by director Michael Almereyda. The former is a lightweight take on the film and the latter a strained attempt at, yet again, linking the film to Hamlet. Despite such senseless flagellations, The Bad Sleep Well is an excellent film, and every bit as worthy of being talked about as a masterpiece, as are Ikiru and Seven Samurai. It is, if only because of the weak end of Rashomon, even better than that universally acknowledged classic, and far better than almost all the American film noirs that I've seen, despite its melodrama. If Shakespeare teaches one thing it's that the difference between true drama and melodrama is often only the excellence of its presentation. On that score, this film is a great drama, even if, ultimately and in the real world, the bad really do sleep well.
Suit & tie, or hangman's noose This is a different offering from Kurosawa, a riveting drama that explores the corruption in big business. It opens up with an extavagant wedding, where reporters, police, and the media flock to witness the outcome. Rumors abound that Nishi (Mifune) is only marrying the rich boss's daughter to springboard his career. It turns out, Nishi has other motives. Like revenge. His father-in-law might have played a large hand in his own father's death. Another obstacle springs forwars when Nishi starts to actually have feelings for his new wife. Not one of my faves by AK. Some parts seem a little disconnected from the story. Maybe that was the intention, it's still an entertaining albeit awkward story from one of the greatest directors who ever lived.
The Bad Sleep Well Based on a story by Ed McBain, this modern-day variation on "Hamlet" is a tense, complex psychological drama, with star Mifune (who was Kurosawa's charismatic, recurring leading man well into the sixties, here barely recognizable in glasses) turning in an unusually restrained performance. While succeeding more as chilling revenge tale than unfiltered romance, the film hooks you regardless. There's very little chance "Bad" will put you to sleep!
A great Hamlet Adaptation After viewing Ran my initial reaction was simple awe. I had never before seen such a stunning epic, and never had the story of King Lear been adapted so poetically and viscerally. There has not been a film since that has come close to the way I perceived Ran, I was simply blown away.
After viewing a few more Kurosawa pictures I came upon one entitled 'Throne of Blood'. While I felt it was defiantly one of Kurosawa's stronger pictures, it also seemed to lack the Shakespearian atmosphere that Ran had. I liked it, but felt it was closer to The Seven Samurai as oppose to Ran.
Then, later still, I came upon The Bad Sleep Well. I expected something similar to Throne of Blood, with Kurosawa's 50s-60s atmosphere rather then his 80s-90s atmosphere. Well it turned out that I was wrong. The Bad Sleep Well is easily Kurosawa's most underrated picture, overshadowed by Yojimbo & Sanjuro afterward, and The Hidden Fortress before. The Bad Sleep Well however, does not take the same ambiance as those pictures, rather it shows a flash of Kurosawa's elderly genius from such pictures as Kagemusha and Ran(not to undermine his early genius, its just that the film feels much like one of his later pictures). I won't bother going into detail on the story, as most are already familiar with Shakespeare's Hamlet, and American film-noir; but what I will tell you however, is how well it adapts to the story(s), and that its narrative really flows at a great pace.
The Bad Sleep Well features a great performance by Toshiro Mifune, playing the Hamlet character in a very interesting way, similar in some ways to Laurence Olivier's 1948 version. His performance is what steals the show; although I thought there were some interesting supporting roles, none really stand up to his sheer intensity.
The film stays as true to the play as possible in a modern Japan setting, keeping the essentials and retaking bits and pieces to give it a different, almost more nihilist feel. The changes flow smoothly though, and the film can be nicely appreciated by both fans of both William Shakespeare and Akira Kurosawa.
I give the Bad Sleep Well 8/10. It's not Ran or Rashomon, but it is defiantly one of his strongest pictures that is not regarded as a total masterpiece. Defiantly check it out, you will not be disappointed.
An interesting Kurosawa film about corporate corruption, with a fine performance by Toshiro Mifune Despite many good elements, The Bad Sleep Well is one Kurosawa movie that didn't involve me much, either emotionally or in the story telling. I've always found it hard to take seriously movie stories where the villain, either an individual or an organization, is so all-powerful and so competent that he or it simply can't be touched. Here we have a tale of massive corporate corruption in post-war Japan which is led by an unseen evil which can arrange not just for suicides, blackmail, murder and the cover ups, but for all those messy details like cleaning up afterwards and immaculate body disposal. Bureaucratic self-sacrifice is the expected behavior of subordinates, when necessary. As one character says, "You don't understand bureaucrats. A good official never implicates a superior, no matter what the cost." For me, the pervasive success of the bad ones doesn't lead to great drama or to wrenching, paranoid discovery, but just to melodrama,
Adding to the distance I felt is the behavior of the...well, not hero, exactly. Protagonist? Nishi (Toshiro Mifune) is so consumed by revenge that he unhesitatingly takes upon himself the role of judge and executioner, destroying many of those around him who are either innocent of anything other than loving him or who are small potatoes in the schemes of corruption. And the Mr. Bigs? Nishi tells us "Even now they sleep soundly, with grins on their faces. I won't stand for it! I can never hate them enough!" Do the ends justify the means? I seldom think so, certainly not in a movie, yet it is difficult to feel sympathy for Nishi unless we're willing to give that question the benefit of the doubt. In the last quarter of the movie, when Nishi softens a bit and even seems of the verge of success with no further great violence, I think I had just spent too much time finding his obsession with revenge tiring.
That last quarter brings things into focus in ways that make at least some of the preceding time seem unnecessary. Still, Nishi's feeling about his wife, his questioning of his own methods, his background, all brought him into a more interesting light, where before he simply seemed to me a creature of obsession and ruthlessness.
The film opens with a great-story setting scene. Everything we need to know about the plot is given to us here, largely by exposition from some reporters. We're at the elaborate wedding dinner of Nishi and the daughter of a senior officer of a large construction company. We see and learn about the corrupt characters and the background of corruption. We see notes being passed, a police inspector showing up, reporters talking to themselves (and to us). We see the strangely expressionless face of Nishi. We see a large cake decorated to look like an office building come rolling in right after the wedding cake, and we note a red rose sticking out from a seventh floor window of the cake. We learn this represents the window where five years earlier a mid-level bureaucrat jumped to his death. And off we go into the rest of the tale.
Mifune does a terrific job as Nishi. He made Nishi's obsession believable. I also liked very much Takashi Shimura's portrayal of Moriyama, the obsequious and reliable bureaucrat, and Tatusuya Mihashi as Nishi's brother-in-law. Probably the most thankless role was played by Kyoko Kagawa as Nishi's wife. She noted in an interview on the disc that almost every emotion her character felt had to be shown indirectly and with reserve. She does a fine job.
Don't mistake me; the movie is interesting and the story keeps moving ahead. Just don't expect a Kurosawa masterpiece. If at all possible, don't read the two essays in the booklet that accompanies the disc. The one written by Chuck Stephens, identified as a contributing editor to something called Film Comment, is particularly mannered and pretentious. With their labored pedantry and jarring attempts at similes and alliteration, the essays do the film no good service.
The Criterion DVD picture looks just fine. The important extra is a 33-minute documentary on the making of the film. Several of the actors look back and comment on their roles and what it was like working with Kurosawa.
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