The Bad Sleep Well [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

In this engaging drama, acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa deftly splices together the nuances of hypocrisy, old feudal misconceptions lingering in modern corruption, and Shakespeare's Hamlet. The rotten corporate world is taken on by Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune), who is looking for revenge in the death of his father. Koichi is a private secretary to a government official, and in the opening scene, at Koichi's wedding to the official's disabled daughter, a special cake is brought in which jolts those present -- it reminds them of the suicide that paved the way for their current positions of power. Then the police arrive and arrest one of the wedding guests. Unknown to the others, Koichi is the hidden force behind all the strange happenings that begin to sting their consciences and ruin their lives. Ghostly figures and would-be killers in the dark streets contrast with shining corporate offices as the plot maneuvers to its tragic conclusion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: Eng
• Features:
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • A 33-minute documentary on the making of The Bad Sleep Well
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • New essays by film critic Chuck Stephens and director Michael Almereyda

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Toshiro Mifune - Koichi Nishi
       Masayuki Kato
       Akira Nishimura - Shirai
       Kyu Sazanka - Kaneko
       Kamatari Fujiwara - Wada
       Seiji Miyaguchi - Okakura
       Yoshio Tsuchiya - Det. Murata
       Kyoko Kagawa - Kieko
       Nobuo Nakamura - Lawyer
       Ko (Isao) Kimura - Det. Arai
       Yutaka Sada - Aoki, chauffeur
       Koji Mitsui - Journalist
       Takashi Shimura - Moriyama
       Kenjiro Ishiyama - Det. Taguchi
       Tatsuya Nakadai - Insp. Tokuro
       Takeshi Kato - Itakura
       Chishu Ryu - Nonaka
       Tatsuya Mihashi - Tatsuo Iwabuchi
       Gen Shimizu - Miura
       Susumu Fujita - Commissioner
       Masayuki Mori - Iwabuchi
       Tsutomu Yamazaki - Ginji Takeuchi, kidnaper

• Director:

  Akira Kurosawa

• Producer:

  Akira Kurosawa, Tomoyuki Tanaka

• Screenwriter:

  Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, Eijiro Hisaita, Ryuzo Kikushima

• Cinematographer:

  Yuzuru Aizawa

• Composer (Music Score):

  Masaru Sato

• Editor:

  Akira Kurosawa

• Production Designer:

  Shinobu Muraki

• Art Director:

  Yoshiro Muraki

REVIEW:

• Akira Kurosawa takes on corporate corruption in Japan with a nod to Shakespeare's Hamlet. The concept of honor, is often at the center of Kurosawa's work, as well as a sense of outrage on behalf of the exploited. Both figure prominently here as Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune), plans to exact revenge for the death of his father, a corporate executive who was forced to commit suicide by his colleagues. In the famed opening wedding sequence, analogous to Hamlet's play-within-a-play, an enormous wedding cake in the shape of the corporation's office building reveals the manner of the man's suicide, shocking the guests. The Darwinian atmosphere of Japan's feudalistic corporate world is laid open for inspection and condemnation by the director, as Mifune tries to destroy the company from within. Coupled with the later High and Low (1962) it suggests the high cost of idealism in the midst of corruption. It can be difficult to adjust to Mifune in a business suit, and the relative restraint of his swift economical gestures, but he's again magnificent in part utterly unlike the samurai work for which he's known. The film has a stark, contrasty look, which, along with Kurosawa's characteristic geometric cuts, seems to suggest the moral absolutism of his vision. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi