The Bad Sleep Well

The Bad Sleep Well premiered on September 15, 1960. The film marked the beginning of a new phase in the storied career of director Akira Kurosawa (1910-98).

Kurosawa started working for Toho Studios in 1938. Five years later in 1943 he directed his first film, Sugata Sanshiro. A string of commercial and critical successes over the next five years quickly established Kurosawa as one of the most electrifying new directors working in Japan. Important films from this early period include: No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), Drunken Angel (1948), and Stray Dog (1949).

In 1950 Kurosawa directed Rashomon, one of the most important films in the history of Japanese cinema. Winning the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival and Best Foreign Film award at the 1951 Academy Awards, Rashomon become the first Japanese film to garner international attention and effectively introduced worldwide audiences to the richness of Japanese cinema. With this stunning achievement, Kurosawa cemented his status in the Japanese film industry.

To keep their internationally renowned director happy, Toho gave Kurosawa carte blanche in his subsequent films. He responded by directing some magnificent features, most notably Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), and Thrown of Blood (1957). Less pleasing to the Toho front office was Kurosawa's increasing extravagance. Seven Samura, for example, was months over schedule and way over budget, turning out to be one of the most expensive films made in Japan to date. In an effort to force Kurosawa to pay closer attention to the bottom line, the studio encouraged him to establish his own production company in conjunction with Toho Studios.

The Bad Sleep Well was the first film that Kurosawa directed under this new arrangement. Determined to make a powerful statement, he chose to structure the movie around an explosive contemporary issue, the corporate scandals that were rocking Japan in the late 1950s. Despite its epic scale, expensive cast, and long running time, the film still managed to turn a profit. Audiences appreciated the engrossing plot, the film-noire atmosphere, and the flashy performance by Toshiro Mifune. The film also struck a powerful chord with critics, who ranked The Bad Sleep Well as the third best film of the year.

The Bad Sleep Well initiated what is generally thought to be the most creative period of Kurosawa's career. Over the next four years he directed some of his greatest masterpieces: Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962), and Red Beard (1965).

After Red Beard, Kurosawa directed seven more features, the most memorable of which were Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985). These late films further endeared him to US directors, especially Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who presented Kurosawa with an honorary Oscar in 1989.

Although Kurosawa is now generally associated with his historical dramas, he also excelled at films set in contemporary times. Indeed, his early films tended to addresses social problems of postwar Japan. No Regrets for Our Youth, for instance, depicts the obstacles faced by antiwar activists, Drunken Angel confronts the despair of the Occupation, and Ikiru reveals the intransigence of the postwar bureaucracy.

In this same vein, The Bad Sleep Well combines commentary on a modern social problem with high-voltage melodrama. The director further complicates the mix by adding elements gleaned from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the crime fiction of US writer Ed McBain, and a dash of the classic Japanese adauchi-mono (revenge tale). The end result is a riveting and entertaining film.

Toshiro Mifune (1920-97) gives a solid performance as the brooding hero of The Bad Sleep Well. It was the eleventh film (out of a total of fifteen) that the star had made under Kurosawa's direction. Mifune also worked successfully with directors Hiroshi Inagaki and Masaki Kobayashi. In most of films he played a man of action, thrilling audiences with his elemental power and natural charisma. Due to his collaboration with Kurosawa, Mifune is probably the most famous Japanese film star in the world.

Kurosawa in the 1950s

Michiyo Kogure and Toshiro Mifune in Drunken Angel

Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, and Mifune in Seven Samurai

Mifune, Seizaburo Kawazu, Susumu Fujita, and Isuzu Yamada in Yojimbo

Shohei Imamura's Japan

From May 25 to June 30 the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley will be hosting a Shohei Imamura retrospective. This is a wonderful opportunity to acquaint yourself with the work of this innovative and controversial artist. Please click here for more information about the event.

The Bad Sleep Well Trailer

Here is the original theatrical trailer for Akira Kurosawa's thrilling The Bad Sleep Well.

We will be showing the film in its original widescreen format.



Until next week!

Reminder

This is a reminder that there is no screening on Friday April 20. Our next film, Cruel Story of Youth, will be shown on April 27.

Cruel Story of Youth

Shochiku Studios released Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth on June 3, 1960. The film was one arm of a larger strategy to revamp the studio's image. Throughout the 1950s, Shochiku had become increasingly associated with the heartwarming home dramas of Yasujiro Ozu. Indeed, for all intents and purposes, Ozu was the face of the studio.

Although happy with the prestige that the studio garnered from Ozu's films, Shochiku executives looked with increasing envy at the massive profits that their rivals at Nikkatsu Studios made from movies featuring popular teen actors Yujiro Ishihara and Keiichiro Akagi. These films with their racy plots and bad-boy stars appealed to huge audiences of young men and women.

In an effort to steal some of its rival's thunder, Shochiku decided to promote a cadre of talented young assistant directors to its hallowed directors list. The studio hoped that these young men would create films that spoke more directly to Japan's younger audiences.

At the age of just 27, Oshima was one of the youngest of these directors. The studio took careful note of his first two features. Based on signs of talent exhibited in these initial forays, they decided to give him free rein in his third feature, Cruel Story of Youth. The gamble was richly rewarded. The film caused a sensation, emerging as the studio's biggest money-maker of the year. The film also effected a profound change in Shochiku's image. Taking note of the innovative cinematic style achieved by Oshima, the popular press heralded him, along with his fellow Shochiku directors Masahiro Shinoda and Yoshishige Yoshida, as exemplars of the New Wave. Shochiku thus came to be perceived as the epicenter of an exciting new trend in Japanese film. Studio executives had thus achieved their goal; Shochiku was no longer thought of solely as the home of Yasujiro Ozu.

It's difficult to know if Oshima consciously tried to differentiate himself from Ozu with Cruel Story of Youth, but the end product can justifiably be described as the antithesis of an Ozu film. With its attention to social upheaval, its overheated depiction of youthful resentment and passion, and its hyperbolic visual style, the film embodies a view of Japanese society and film that deviates radically from anything found in the work of Ozu. Three of the film's stars, Miyuki Kuwano, Yoshiko Kuga, and Fumio Watanabe, had also worked with Ozu. A comparison of how the two directors styled and shot these actors suggests the fundamental difference in their respective cinematic visions.


Kuwano in Cruel Story of Youth

Kuwano in Ozu's Late Autumn

Kuga in Cruel Story of Youth

Kuga in Ozu's Good Morning

Watanabe in Cruel Story of Youth

Watanabe in Ozu's Late Autumn

Despite the success of Cruel Story of Youth in contemporizing Shochiku's image, the relationship between Oshima and the studio quickly soured. Studio executives were aghast at Oshima's next film, Night and Fog in Japan (1960), an avant-garde depiction of political radicals. Although the film was praised by critics, named as one of the ten best films of the year by Kinema Junpo, it was a commercial failure and target for cultural commentators who railed against the anarchic tendencies of popular culture. Shortly after the release of this film, Oshima severed his connection with Shochiku.

Once on his own, the young director developed into one of the most creative and controversial film-makers of the 1960s. His post-Shochiku output includes The Catch (1961), based on short story by Kenzaburo Oe, Violence at Noon (1966), Death by Hanging (1968), Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1968), and Boy (1969). Taken together these films constitute a remarkable and challenging body of work.

In the 1970s, Oshima shifted gears and began exploring other, equally controversial, issues in his films. In particular, sex, always a topic of interest to Oshima, emerged as a central preoccupation of his work. He gained worldwide attention in 1976 with the release of Realm of the Senses, a study of sexual obsession and experimentation reminiscent of Last Tango in Paris. Due to the relentlessly explicit sex scenes, the film was initially banned in Japan.

In the years since Realm of the Senses, Oshima has slowed down considerably. Among his late films, only two have attracted significant attention: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), a WWII drama starring David Bowie, and Taboo (1999), a historical tale that recounts a gay love triangle involving 19th-century samurai.

For a more detailed discussion of Oshima's impact as a filmmaker, click here to go to an informative article by Nelson Kim.

Oshima in 1960

Do-yun Yu in Death by Hanging

Eiko Matsuda and Tatsuya Fuji in Realm of the Senses

Takeshi Kitano and Ryuhei Matsuda in Taboo

Cruel Story of Youth Trailer

Here's the original theatrical trailer for Cruel Story of Youth.

We will be showing the film in all its GrandScope glory.



Subtitled by Molly Vallor.

CinemaScope

My sincere apologies for the quality of the projected image on Friday night. It was the first CinemaScope (actually TohoScope) film that I have ever screened. After talking to the projectionist, I learned that the problem could have been solved if we had switched lenses and recalibrated the screen. Live and learn.

For those who are curious, here is an explanation of how the wide-screen process works.

Alas, it's too late for When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, but now that we know what to expect, we'll be ready for the rest of the films. Rest assured, we won't make the same mistake twice.

Perhaps, though, it was an appropriate viewing experience for a film about unfulfilled expectations and bitter frustrations.

Review of Naruse's film

Click here for a review of When a Woman Ascends the Stairs written by The Stanford Daily's Brendan Marten.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs Trailer

Here's the original theatrical trailer for When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.



Subtitled by Joanna Sturiano.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

The first film in our series is the timeless melodrama, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. The film was released by Toho Studios on January 15, 1960. The date is significant, because Japanese studios typically released their most prestigious films around New Years.

Toho lavished a remarkable amount of talent on the film. The cast is headlined by Hideko Takamine, one of the studio's most popular actresses. Her leading men include Masayuki Mori, just then reaching the peak of his professional career, Tatsuya Nakadai, an emerging heart-throb and action star, Ganjiro Nakamura, the venerable star of stage and screen, and Daisuke Kato, the ubiquitous character actor. Popular Toho starlets Reiko Dan and Keiko Awaji completed the cast.

The script was written by Ryuzo Kikushima. One of the foremost scenarists of the 1950s and 1960s, Kikushima is best known internationally for his work with Akira Kurosawa on Stray Dogs (1949), Yojimbo (1961), and Sanjuro (1962).

At the helm of this production was the renowned director Mikio Naruse. After starting his directorial career in 1930, Naruse quickly rose to prominence, winning the prestigious Kinema Junpo Best Picture and Best Director awards in 1935 for his film Wife, Be Like a Rose!. After this promising start, however, the director hit an artistic slump that lasted for almost two decades. It was only in 1951 that he ressurected his career with the film, Repast, starring Setsuko Hara. This film marked the beginning of the most productive phase of Naruse's career. During the next eight years, he directed some of the most memorable films ever produced in Japan, including Lightening (1952), Mother (1952), Sound of the Mountains (1954), Late Chrysanthemums (1954), Floating Clouds (1955), and Flowing (1956). This series of classics culminated with When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.

Naruse in the 1930s

Poster for Wife, Be Like a Rose!

Setsuko Hara and Ken Uehara in Repast

Hideko Takamine and Masayuki Mori in Floating Clouds

Naruse's films typically focus on the plight of women. His female protagonists are ordinary individuals beset by mundane financial, familial, and romantic problems. Yet Naruse was always able to convey the beauty and dignity of these common characters as they struggle to overcome everything that life throws at them.

Hideko Takamine excelled in this type of role. Indeed, she made a total of seventeen films with Naruse, establishing them as one of the great director-actor partnerships of Japanese cinema to rival the collaborations of Kenji Mizoguchi and Kinuyo Tanaka, Yasujiro Ozu and Setsuko Hara, and Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune.

Before embarking on this fruitful partnership with Naruse, Takamine had already known considerable success, first as a child star and then as an ingenue. Aside from her work with Naruse, she is best known for films such as Composition Class (1938), Horse (1941), Where the Chimneys Are Seen (1951), The Mistress (1953), Twenty-Four Eyes (1954), and most famously Carmen Comes Home (1951), the rollicking tale of a stripper who returns to her home in the countryside.

Takamine in Tokyo Chorus (1931)

Takamine in Composition Class

Takamine in Carmen Comes Home