Craig J. Clark
Of all the great, longstanding director/actor partnerships – think Scorsese/De Niro or Ford/Wayne – perhaps the most fruitful was between Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, which lasted from 1948 to 1965, and encompassed 16 features. Mifune even made his screen debut in a film Kurosawa wrote, 1947’s Snow Trail, in which his co-star was Takashi Shimura. The next year, when Kurosawa paired them again in Drunken Angel, Shimura received top billing, but Mifune would dominate from then on, culminating in his starring role in 1965’s Red Beard, released in Japan 60 years ago this week.
Based on a book by Shugoro Yamamoto, who also provided the source material for Kurosawa’s Sanjuro and Dodes’ka-den, Red Beard is epic in length (over three hours with a built-in intermission), but intimate in scope as it depicts the inner workings of a rural clinic that primarily serves the poor. Not the sort of place an ambitious young doctor just out of medical school wants to intern, but it’s precisely where Dr. Noboru Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama) winds up after what he believes is a misunderstanding. (He was sent by his mentor to visit; he didn’t expect to stay.) Yasumoto especially chafes under the rules of the clinic’s demanding director, Dr. Kyojio Niide, whose nickname gives the film its title and whose ideas about how to minister to the sick are antithetical to what he’s just spent three years learning.
Since the title character is played by Mifune in his prime, it’s reasonable for first-time viewers to expect him to be a man of action. Mifune was, after all, the dynamic star of Kurosawa’s earlier period films Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, and the one-two slash of Yojimbo and Sanjuro. In contrast, his Red Beard has a wellspring of patience to draw from, which comes in handy not only with patients, but also Yasumoto, who spends the first hour and change sulking, refusing to wear his uniform, and being a nuisance in hopes of being dismissed. Over time, however, he grows to appreciate the wisdom Red Beard offers and sees the value of their work in the community. “It’s pretty difficult here,” says a fellow doctor Yasumoto meets on his first day. “But if you want, you can learn a lot.”
Red Beard’s lessons for Yasumoto take the form of interactions with patients whose ailments open the young man’s eyes to the cruelties of life. There’s “The Mantis,” a madwoman who has killed three men and is on the verge of claiming a fourth victim before Red Beard’s timely intervention. There’s the man with advanced liver cancer whose final moments Red Beard wants him to witness, saying, “Nothing’s so solemn as a man’s last moments.” And there’s the tragic case of Sahachi (Tsutomu Yamazaki, who previously played the kidnapper in High and Low), who works himself to the point of exhaustion for the benefit of his fellow patients. Sahachi’s story touches Yasumoto most deeply and inspires his turnaround; it’s a major milestone when he finally dons his uniform. (Tellingly, the first time he goes out in it, a mother runs up to him with a sick infant, which he diagnoses with measles.)
Throughout, Red Beard serves as an example for Yasumoto by sticking to his principles. This is never more evident than when they visit a brothel and he declares that a 12-year-old girl being pressed into service against her will has a fever so they can remove her. The brothel’s madam (Ozu regular Haruko Sugimura) won’t let her go without a fight, though, and calls her bodyguards. “I won’t kill you,” Red Beard warns them, “but I might break a couple of arms or legs,” and he does just that in a well-choreographed melee that is over in a minute. “This is terrible,” he tells the stunned Yasumoto as they survey the carnage. “Such violence is bad. A doctor mustn’t do such things.” But clearly there are occasions where such things are necessary. Moments like these allow Kurosawa to insert some welcome levity into the proceedings. Even Red Beard’s habit of absently stroking his beard – an echo of Takashi Shimura’s Kambei rubbing his shaved head in Seven Samurai – gives the viewer a glimpse behind the gruff exterior.
Red Beard marked the end of an era in a number of ways for Kurosawa. Not only was it the last time he directed Mifune, it was the last film he made in black-and-white and his last shot in Tohoscope. It also represents the end of his most productive period. In his first 22 years as a director, he made 23 films. In the 28 years that followed, he managed only seven. Mifune, meanwhile, appeared in dozens, but there was no Irishman-style reunion with the man who made him an international star. That’s our loss, but with Red Beard, they went out on a high note.
“Red Beard” is streaming on the Criterion Channel (along with a commentary by film scholar Stephen Prince) and Max.
