I had no idea it was Mifune Toshirô (nor did I get the Hamlet subtext).
Kurosawa mixes genres a lot with The Bad Sleep Well. It’s an incredibly romantic film, but not from the start. The start is a twenty minute wedding scene, all told from reporters’ points of view. It creates a distancing effect, it makes the narrative peculiar. It keeps the audience removed from the characters–in fact, the protagonist isn’t revealed until forty minutes into the film. I know what Mifune looks like, I’ve seen him in quite a few films, but since I wasn’t looking for him (another advantage to going into a film unaware), I let myself get caught up in what was going on.
The distancing–which continues into a police investigation into government corruption–isn’t off-putting. The film follows multiple characters around in a procedural manner Kurosawa used again in High and Low (to much less effect) and manages not to disengage the viewer. This device is successful because no one–not even the viewer–has inkling of what’s going on until a very specific point in the film. It’s not a short, 150 minutes, and this point happens reasonably early… forty-three minutes in or so.
The film develops awkwardly. Significant events occur and the film doesn’t stop. It keeps going after these impossible situations, resolving them, building on them. Besides it not being much like Hamlet, I think it didn’t occur to me it might even be Hamlet because of the feeling. It’s an incredibly tender film and playful film and I’ve never thought of Hamlet as tender or playful. The Bad Sleep Well probably has more feeling in it then any Kurosawa film I’ve seen.
It’s a great film and a perfect example of why writing about great films isn’t any fun. I mean, I don’t have anything to bitch about and its quality wasn’t a surprise. It’s kind of exciting to have seen it, found it (the Criterion DVD only came out a couple months ago, meaning it’s not one of Kurosawa’s best known works in the U.S.), but I really shouldn’t have been expecting anything but a great film. It’s just been too long since I’ve seen Kurosawa in his prime.
CREDITS
Directed and edited by Kurosawa Akira; written by Oguni Hideo, Hisoita Eijiro, Kurosawa, Kikushima Ryuzo and Hashimoto Shinobu; director of photography, Aizawa Yuzuru; music by Sato Masaru; production designer, Muraki Yoshiro; produced by Tanaka Tomoyuki and Kurosawa; released by Toho Company Ltd.
Starring Mifune Toshirô (Koichinishi), Koto Tokeshi (Itkaura), Mori Mosayuki (Iwabuchi), Shimura Tokashi (Moriyama), Nishimura Akira (Shiroi), Fujiwara Kamatari (Wada), Kogawa Kyoka (Keiko) and Mihashi Tatsuya (Tatsuo).
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Morton Hurley // Aug 14, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Thanks for this review.
I love Kurosawa’s work and have been very curious how this film stands up to his other films of the same time period (Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, Lower Depth).
Sounds like this will be another important film to add to my collection.
Robert Roach // Jan 9, 2007 at 8:10 pm
As a LARGE Kurosawa fan, storyboard illustrator & indie publisher, I’ve long been aware of “The Bad Sleep Well”. And no one I’ve clued into it has been disappointed. Like Mr. Wickliffe’s review, they come away saying, “Why didn’t I know about this film long ago?” The nod from the Criterion Collection is both welcome & long overdue.