Hakuchi (1951)

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (novel)
Eijirô Hisaita (writer)

Release Date:

30 April 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women...

Plot Keywords:

Modern Day Adaptation | Remake | Dostoevsky | Prince | Love Triangle

Cast

Setsuko Hara	...	Taeko Nasu
Masayuki Mori	...	Kinji Kameda
Toshirô Mifune	...	Denkichi Akama
Takashi Shimura	...	Ono, Ayako's father
Chieko Higashiyama	...	Satoko, Ayako's mother
Chiyoko Fumiya	...	Noriko
Eijirô Yanagi	...	Tohata
Yoshiko Kuga	...	Ayako
Minoru Chiaki	...	Mutsuo Kayama, the secretary
Eiko Miyoshi	...	Madame Kayama
Noriko Sengoku	...	Takako
Mitsuyo Akashi	...	Madame Akama

Also Known As:

The Idiot (USA)

Runtime:

166 min | Japan:180 min (premiere) | Japan:265 min (extended version)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:6 | Australia:PG | New Zealand:PG | Finland:K-11 | Switzerland:16 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Hokkaido, Japan

Company:

Shôchiku Eiga

Trivia:

Filmed as a two-part production running 265 minutes. Shochiku (the studio) told Akira Kurosawa that the film had to be cut in half, because it was too long; he told them, "In that case, better cut it lengthwise." The film was released truncated at 166 minutes.

Movie Connections:

Version of "The Idiot" (1966)

Cut to Pieces

Visually, this is magnificent. There is more cinematography in this film than any I've every seen. The framing of scenes is unmatched. Unfortunately, with all the cutting, it's so hard to follow. We leap from one scene to another, and while those are such interesting scenes, we often don't know how we got there. Like Von Stroheim's "Greed," the Philistines moved in. Kurosawa hadn't the financial clout to oppose them and had to dismantle what would have been a magnificent film. It is long, but only seems so because it takes us time to absorb what has happened in the interim. The story is really interesting. The man who is termed an Idiot (I"m not sure if it has the same complete meaning it does today) is a spiritual, insightful man who picks up on the emotions of people through their eyes. He falls in love with a kept woman after viewing her picture, but he has a rival in Toshiro Mifume of samurai fame, a bullying, unstable brute who still seeks his mother's approval. The "Idiot" has become the way he is after being pulled from his execution at the last minute. He was falsely convicted of war crimes. He is unbalanced, but is able to see in people what their fears and weaknesses are. He's also not afraid to speak his mind and this leads to great pain. For all the shortcomings, this is a film of great depth and needs to be viewed.