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The Bad Sleep Well

Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru

Japan

1960

150 Min
Black and White
2.35:1
Japanese
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
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DIR Akira Kurosawa

PROD Akira Kurosawa, Tomoyuki Tanaka

SCR Shinobu Hashimoto, Eijirô Hisaita, Ryûzô Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Akira Kurosawa

DP Yuzuru Aizawa

CAST Toshirô Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takashi Shimura, Kyôko Kagawa, Kô Nishimura, Takeshi Katô, Kamatari Fujiwara, Chishû Ryû

ED Akira Kurosawa

PROD DES Yoshirô Muraki

MUSIC Masaru Satô

Melbourne (Akira Kurosawa Retrospective)

Synopsis

A young executive hunts down his father’s killer in director Akira Kurosawa’s scathing The Bad Sleep Well. Continuing his legendary collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa combines elements of Hamlet and American film noir to chilling effect in exposing the corrupt boardrooms of postwar corporate Japan. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Akira Kurosawa

The son of an army officer, Kurosawa studied art before gravitating to film as a means of supporting himself. He served seven years as an assistant to director Kajiro Yamamoto before he began his own directorial career with Sanshiro Sugata (1943), a film about the 19th century struggle for supremacy between adherents of judo and jujitsu that so impressed the military government, he was prevailed upon to make a sequel (Sanshiro Sugata Part Two). Following the end of World War II, Kurosawa’s career gathered speed with a series of films that cut across all genres, from crime thrillers to period dramas. Among the latter, his Rashomon (1951) became the first postwar Japanese film to find wide favor with Western audiences. It was Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954), however, that made the largest impact of any of his movies outside of Japan. Although heavily cut for its original release, this three-hour-plus medieval action drama, shot with painstaking… read more

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Sudipto Basu

29Apr13

Really, Kuro khuro, you don't need to spell everything out. Suggestions welcome.

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A47

10Jul12

Here Kurosawa is clear: the only thing worse than the press is corporate greed. The men in this film are willing to die for their company. Blind faith, even in family, is wrong. The protagonist must get his hands dirty in order to do what is right. I wish someone was brave enough to tell this story today. Interesting to watch where insert shots are used. A lot of solid 3 & 4 person shots. "A man with a full stomach doesn't bother with snacks."

Lukasz Nowak likes this

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DT

2Jun12

Kurosawa’s corporate thriller, rooted in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, whiffs at something rotten in the state of Japan. A jarring and evocative portrayal of corruption in the newly-industrialised, post-war economy, galvanised by Kurosawa’s roving camera along with chilling performances.

Trevor Tillman likes this

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Zachary George Najarian-Najafi

24Apr12

Nowhere near as good as Kurosawa's other corporate noir High and Low, The Bad Sleep Well boasts some terrific scenes but never quite picks up the pace. It's almost painfully slow in parts, and could have done with an editor. Toshiro Mifune is cast against type, and I'm not sure if it quite works. He's never allowed to cultivate much of a presence. None the less some amazing stuff here, and, hey, it's Kurosawa!

Lukasz Nowak likes this

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Untitled

By Adam Suraf on December 1, 2008

Beginning their third and final decade as star and director, Toshiro Mifune once again headlines a stunning morality tale for Akira Kurosawa, utilizing elements of “Hamlet” to tell the story of a young…  read review

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Disappointing subtitles

1 post by 1 person over 3 years ago

DVD

Buy the DVD from The Criterion Collection.