The 1965 black-and-white jidai-geki film Akahige [赤ひげ] (literally ‘Red Beard’) directed by Kurosawa Akira is a work of art that epitomizes the central theme that Kurosawa attempted to resonate religiously throughout his entire career in films of humanism and existentialism and his forever empathy and compassion he holds for them. Akahige the film was based on Yamamoto Shūgorō’s short story collection, Akahige shinryotan (赤ひげ診療譚), It is a great adaptation of the original story of a doctor (Akahige) and his intern (minus the new addition Otoyo, a girl saved from a brothel taken from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Insulted and the Injured as mentioned by Richie). The cast included many well-known actors today such as Mifune Toshiro and Kayama Yuzo; both actors Kurosawa used in several of his films.
The story takes place at the end of the Tokugawa period where Yasumoto Noboru, a young and very promising doctor, returns to Edo after having studied medicine at the Dutch medical schools in Nagasaki. The film starts off with the audience being shown Yasumoto paying a visit to the Koshikawa Public Clinic as was instructed of him to make a formal call and pay his respects to Niide Kyojio (Mifune) a well-known doctor known for his signature red beard. Brought to Niide’s (hereafter Akahige) clinic under false pretences, Yasumoto (Yuzo) finds himself trapped as he is instructed to stay there as Akahige’s intern. Yasumoto, having convinced himself that he was a great, stellar doctor that had promising potential to work for the Shogun as his own personal doctor, had never entertained the idea of working at a public clinic.
Yasumoto finds ways to refuse what is expected of him (i.e. wearing his uniform, drinking sake) hoping Akahige will ask him to leave but according to Richie in his book titled “The Films of Akira Kurosawa”, like the protagonists in several of Kurosawa’s other films such as Sanishiro Sugata, Stray Dog, and High and Low, Yasumoto soon finds that Red Beard too centralizes around the idea of ‘education’ and that ‘good’ although is the right thing to do, is rare in reality. Through his experiences observing patients in the public clinic simultaneously observing Akahige’s approach to tending to their needs, Yasumoto soon realizes what it really means to be a good doctor. That is, the simple compassion for the human heart and how a single act of kindness can really make a difference. As the three-hour movie progresses, you see Yasumoto’s interesting to say the least and at times tragically disturbing encounters with the Mantis, Sahachi, and Rokusuke: all patients in the clinic that unfortunately succumb to their illnesses. It is by their death that Yasumoto’s re-birth, finding what it truly means to help people not just from wealth and status but those less fortunate than him as well, comes.
One thing I found that was impressive was Kurosawa’s impressive effort and success in depicting the story and the Edo period as accurately as one possibly could. I agree with the term Richie described the overall film to be in that it possesses a patina accurately portraying that time. The location where Kurosawa filmed looked so real and not staged because they were not; Kurosawa used an actual village in order to get the authenticity in which he strived to achieve. Richie mentions that Kurosawa’s success in depicting such an old image was because they were as old as they looked. Many of the materials (i.e. bedding, clothes) were said to be gathered months before they were needed for shooting to really portray they had been used and the roof tiles were centuries old. Kurosawa’s meticulous efforts to produce a true, realistic work of art took about two years to make due to this specific requirement to accurately portray the story as it had been originally told.
The theme of ‘humanism’ is represented from the very beginning of the film and remains consistent throughout. It is only when Yasumoto has his own realization from his own personal experiences that it is really in the forefront concluding the film beautifully. The initial representations of the theme humanism are shown in different ways through the many patients in the clinic and their experiences that inevitably make Yasumoto realize his own compassion for the human condition. One example would be Sahachi who was was a down-to-earth, generous, and loving man who did everything and anything for his neighbors. He was always seen diligently working for other’s benefits but it is what led him falling sick inevitably leading him to his deathbed. There is a scene in the film where he explains his reasons for the constant exhaustive effort to help those in need and requests that people gather to hear a secret he has long kept that he must tell after a landslide occurs washing down a corpse which we later discover is othat tf his former wife. His reasons stemming behind his attempts to always pay it forward was because his wife had killed herself for having to choose between giri (obligation towards the man she was promised to marry) and ninjo (her genuine love for Sahachi). Initially his wife makes the decision to marry Sahachi but the great earthquake that shakes Edo makes her think she’s being punished for being selfish and genuinely happy that she succumbs to giri only to cross paths with Sahachi again whilst carrying the child of the other man. It is at this pivotal point where she realizes how much damage she has done pretending to be dead after the earthquake all these years and decides to take her own life in a symbolic way; in the embracing arms of Sahachi who is unaware at the time of the knife she has facing her as he willingly and affectionately embraces her. The scene, so emotionally charged brought tears to my eyes as many the patients’ experiences did.
Overall without a doubt I would highly recommend this movie to any viewer. It is a very moving piece with a very realistic message that it is only after one has experienced the negative will one ever realize and experience the positive in one’s life/decisions. One part I found quite difficult to watch however was the scene where Akahige asks Yasumoto to assist him with a surgery to hold a naked woman’s legs down where we hear dialogue such as her intestines are bulging out and we get some visual of the procedure. That for me was hard to sit through twice, so for those who are not fond of such gory scenes, beware! I must admit though if you can bear to watch a modern-day Hollywood film with doctors and are comfortable with blood, this scene is PG in comparison. To conclude, I agree with Richie in that its message is clear in its ‘true sentiment’ in that in all of our negative and positive experiences both experiences are of human nature and the bad can only be overcome if an individual possesses this realization and acts upon it.