This frightening portrait of the tight grip of corruption on the corrupt has wonderful performances that enhance the moral peril its schemes. Nobody is innocent, and being the least depraved doesn't guarantee success in this film's ruthless world. The corporate structure this is set in has an excellent sense of time and place, and yet the raw humanity that it portrays is timeless, with a calculating soul that grasps and anything it can reach.

Kurosawa addresses government corruption, but the film felt flat to me for some reason.

Japanese variation of the 1940 Warner Bros. crime dramas.

The Bad Sleep Well's ground-breaking concept shows Kurosawa's uncompromised ambition.

"A freestyle homage to Hamlet that does away with the costumed faithfulness of Kurosawa's other Shakespeare adaptations." - Nick Schager

uncle WET PILLOW SURGERY instead

I've come to appreciate this as one of Kurosawa's most unique achievements. It is unusually pessimistic and cynical, questioning the worth of individual righteousness pitted against institutional corruption. A tragedy of Shakespearean qualities set in a modern world of noir fatalism. There are several great set pieces: a tainted wedding, a nightmarish suburban street, an atrophied bunker. Mifune's stiff presence is at first discouraging, but it fits his stoic, conflicted character well.

Challenging to get into. The plot isn't that complicated, really, it's just that there's so many names and relations to keep track of. The ending was surprisingly dark for the times, and - while it doesn't even come near Kurusawa's edge-of-your-seat procedural 'High and Low' - this is ambitious storytelling blessed with a least a handful of interesting shots and some generally nice cinematography. Subtracting from the experience: an annoying musical motif and some less than stellar acting.

Frequently compared to Hamlet, this seems more to me like a Romeo and Juliet of proletariat vs. bourgeoisie. The cinematography is unusually good, even for a Kurosawa film, and his usual ensemble is as enjoyable as ever to watch. I felt annoyed by the naive meddling and emotional neediness of Yoshiko, though, since she's the only woman in this film.

Using elements of the Hamlet story, Kurosawa constructs a tragedy amidst the corruption of the Japanese corporate world. This world, however, is darker than Hamlet's Denmark, for here--unlike in Shakespeare--evil goes unpurged and corruption continues unabated. Mifune gives a restrained performance that may seem bland at first, but which grows in power and dignity. The composition and lighting is masterful, demonstrating that Kurosawa has learned as much from noir as from the Western.

Kurosawa's most pessimistic film with an ending that must have been fairly unnerving for that period since it dealt with corporate and social problems in post-war Japan. There are some wonderfully jarring moments in this and unfortunately it's partially held back by some weak acting at certain points. It's always mentioned but the wedding intro is a classic in cinema.

tedious melodrama punctuated with poor direction and even worse acting

Doesn't rank with Kurosawa's best but still a fine film that's very bleak and brutal anyway you look at it. Has some distracting overacting, most notably from Wada and Yoshiki. Mifune is solid as usual. A genius story idea, it's a shame that it drags at times to the point of annoyance. Props for the ballsy ending

hamlet-noir? goddamn kurosawa. why are you so awesome?

91.625

Solid noir about corporate corruption from Kurosawa. Very dark and tense atmosphere, and beautiful black-and-white photography. This is not one of Kurosawa's very best, but it definitely deserves to be seen.

This is one of Kurosawa's best works. Its a gripping, dark story of one man's struggle to fight corruption. Everything is near perfect, the performances, the noirish cinematography, the twisting plot, the dark cynical tone all leading to a brilliant ending. It's a film that, like Ikiru, manages to balance both social and personal commentary, though it does so in a very different and much darker way.

A good story that unfortunately drags at times the way it was directed. Perhaps the issues were so taboo in Japan at the time there was a need to allow audiences to digest the plot points, but much of this is old-hat to modern viewers. So do see this if you like police dramas, but be patient with it as it takes two hours to do what today would be done in one.

Boring.

I just love how this opens - the entire wedding reception is one of my favorite introductions to a movie. A particularly difficult film to rate tho due to an unconvincing reveal for the Mifune character & a regrettable last hour, especially the finish. As with most anything Kurosawa, especially his late studio work (which I would call this the beginning of), it is magnificently filmed in all aspects.

Yawn.

It loses some of its momentum during the second half but it's still pretty amazing. Surprisingly dark. Really.

All Kurosawa movies reside in the same matrix, whether they take place in Tokugawa era or modern times. Maybe basic human reality doesn't change much, at least in Kurosawa's perception. I don't like "in the search for truth" and investigation movies much (best being J.F.K.), but I have to admit this is a solid movie as nothing less is expected. It would have been better it was more character oriented and doesn't initially take the "wrongness" for granted.

Good film.

One of my all time favorites of Kurosawa. Beautiful cinematography, as always, and Mifune is always a treat to watch act. Compelling story (who doesn't love Hamlet?). Wonderful, wonderful filmmaking.

This movie looks, sounds, and feels almost exactly like an American noir, and a damn good one at that. This is deeply cynical stuff. I also have to add that this movie is shot like a motherfucker, the framing is absolutely impeccable. It is mightly long, but it's so compelling throughout. I can only think of one section that could use some serious editing, and that's the intro. Keep the bit with the cake, but probably at least 10 minutes could be lost without hurting anything.

The plot is ingenious, and the characters are well-defined and distinctive. The acting is good, at least for the most part (the guys playing Shirai and Wada are both prone to overacting, and Mifune is a bit too restrained and nondescript). The cinematography is as engrossing as that of any other Kurosawa film. I particularly liked some of the use of light, like in that scene where Shirai is walking home, and the road ahead of him is lit up by a car behind him, revealing Wada in the darkness.

The first half is absolutely brilliant, the second half not quite as much. Still, a great film. The cinematography is especially good, probably among Kurosawa's best.

Kurosawa sees much sadness in the modern world, and this film might be his bleakest statement. His mastery of the camera so evident in his last films of the 60s can be seen here as he frames the action in both tight close-ups that highlight differences between characters and shots with characters dwarfed by the surroundings. The opening scene at the wedding is rightly lauded, but I like most the look and feel of the bombed out bunker. What an appropriate place to end a film like this.

the best adjective for this movie is streaky, it's got a couple AMAZING streaks of superior story telling amid an overwhelming amount of average or simply sub-par parts. i'd like to love this movie, but it just simply didnt have the stuff of greatness that i know kurosawa can do.

Solid 2nd tier Kurosawa. The story and its construction are near flawless, naturally, but it only kept me fairly interested and not completely engrossed.