Red Beard (1965)

In a charity hospital, a hard-bitten but honorable older doctor, Dr. Niide, takes a young intern under his guidance through the course of a number of difficult cases. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Akira Kurosawa
Written By: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Ryûzô Kikushima, Masato Ide
Starring: Takashi Shimura, Chishû Ryû, Toshirô Mifune, Eijirô Tôno, Haruko Sugimura, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kyôko Kagawa, Bokuzen Hidari, Yûzô Kayama, Hiroshi Tanaka, Reiko Dan, Miyuki Kuwano
Genre: Drama
AKA: Akahige
Country: Japan
Where to Stream
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Red Beard belongs to 54 collections
1. Criterion Collection (collaborative: moderated by caffe - 167 stars)
2. Roger Ebert: Great Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 80 stars)
3. boobs (collaborative: moderated by Pickpocket - 51 stars)
4. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2008 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 39 stars)
5. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2010 revision) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 32 stars)
6. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2014 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Jehan - 27 stars)
7. Best of criticker: Top 250 (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 26 stars)
8. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2012 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 25 stars)
9. Over 3 Hours Long (collaborative: moderated by djross - 19 stars)
10. Best of criticker: Drama (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 18 stars)
11. Kinema Junpo 200 Greatest Japanese films (2009 list) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 17 stars)
12. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2013 revision) (collaborative: moderated by rant1229 - 16 stars)
13. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2011 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 14 stars)
14. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2020 revision) (public: djross - 14 stars)
15. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)
16. Criticker top 250 (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 11 stars)
17. Cinema Discusso Yearly Consensus (2008) (public: PeaceAnarchy - 10 stars)
18. Epic (collaborative - 8 stars)
19. Black and White Photography (collaborative: moderated by JooJoo - 6 stars)
20. List: Taschen (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 6 stars)
21. Best by different standards (public: sesito71 - 6 stars)
22. Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 4 stars)
23. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2007 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 4 stars)
24. IMDb Top of The 1960's (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 4 stars)
25. Average Percentile >70 (collaborative: moderated by peyrin - 4 stars)
26. Japanese director (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 3 stars)
27. Coheed's Films I Need To See Or Try To Track Down (public: Coheed - 3 stars)
28. movies of the year - Brian (public: JooJoo - 1 star)
29. Pickpocket inaccurate PSI (public: Pickpocket - 1 star)
30. Akira Kurosawa (public: kendell - 1 star)
31. The Greatest Movies of All Time - Filmweb's Alternative Top 500 (public: Hadleyreis - 1 star)
32. To Download (collaborative: moderated by ForrestQ)
33. My Top 100 (collaborative: moderated by MartinTeller)
34. Intermission (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub)
35. Films about Doctors (collaborative: moderated by nauru)
36. Jidaigeki (collaborative: moderated by tirefeet)
37. Available on Divicast (collaborative: moderated by Dunstan-xxx)
38. Foreign films on Divicast (collaborative: moderated by Dunstan-xxx)
39. Intended Viewings (public: Grit)
40. Djross 1965 top ten (public: djross)
41. To Watch (public: normalchaos)
42. zae's DVDs & Blurays (public: zae)
43. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 4 (public: PeaceAnarchy)
44. 3: High Priority (Not in English) (public: KasperL)
45. Djross Japanese feature films I've seen (public: djross)
46. 5x10 Project 2 (public: kendell)
47. Forrest Watch List (public: ForrestQ)
48. old Japan (public: kendell)
49. Films Dunstan Owns (public: Dunstan-xxx)
50. Dunstan's DVD Collection (public: Dunstan-xxx)
51. Backlog (public: Ceekay19)
52. To See (public: Contreras)
53. 1960s Mile High Club (public: Dunstan-xxx)
54. Filmin (public: Hadleyreis)
Browse the full list of collections
Stars | User | Rating | |
7 | ![]() |
elmakebabi | 97 99th |
If a spaceship would land on Earth and aliens ask me to tell them what the humanity is, I would simply lend them this film. However, if they wouldn't give it back after watching, than I would simply kill them! I'm serious!
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Farzan | 96 97th |
Red Beard is touching, overwhelming, and inspiring. It is perhaps Kurosawa's most humanistic film right alongside Ikiru. It is so beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, and passionately thought out that it is hard to dislike this work of art. Perfection is a word I would use to describe this film if it were not for its flaws, most notably the out of place fight scene. The end of one of the great collaborations in film, and what an end it is.
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KAH | 4 93rd |
Kurosawa's humanism is taken all the way here, and though tending towards the melodramatic, it's done with such truthfulness and empathy for the characters, that it never feels manipulative. It also boosts some superbly acted long takes, and beautiful b&w cinematography. A great testament to Kurosawa's belief in the good in man, which, regardless of how naive one might think it is, has to be admired.
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MartinTeller | 97 99th |
It's heavy-handed, chock full of "life lessons" and characters sobbing at the drop of a hat (at least a dozen crying scenes). Mifune's performance is not up to par. The use of music is overbearing. The shifting focus can be frustrating. Despite all this, I love it. It's Kurosawa's most emotionally satisfying work. The episode with Otoyo and the bowl is the most moving work he's ever done, Ikiru included. And the photography is the culmination of all of Kurosawa's talents.
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Alex Watkins | 3 38th |
The movie feels like it's going in a bunch of different directions at once, it's melodramatic, there are scenes that just flat out don't fit (such as Mifune randomly breaking like 18 limbs - what the fuck?), and it's sloooow - but it works despite this. Mifune is more understated than in any other performance I've seen him in, and it works fantastically, the photography is gorgeous, and it's the most emotionally effective and satisfying Kurosawa I've seen - yes, more than Ikiru.
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Nathan S | 4 74th |
At first it's pretty slow, but eventually you come to appreciate the previous character developments as they start to tie the plot strings together. The movie runs along the same line as Ikiru in its sheer thoughtfulness and emotional qualities, but it's more subtle and, I think, efficient. Kurosawa's direction is uncharacteristically restrained but graceful, giving everything time to flesh out. He doesn't let a single second go to waste, so it never really feels boring or overbearing.
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JooJoo | 5 80th |
Every technical aspect is developed to perfection, all the performances are exactly what they need to be but this handles almost too many themes, deals with too much emotion. The narrative evolves into something very close to Dostoevsky in its humanism [though, never overt] and delivers some of the most gut-wrenching moments I've ever seen. It begs repeating - Kurosawa was a master.
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frederic_g54 | 10 97th |
Stunning, a film I came to love and appreciate as it progressed and one that in many ways, feels like the culmination of Kurasawa's grandiose career, combining the refined and humane elements of his more restrained pictures together with the engaging characters of his samurai epics. I feel as though I have entered a desolate and obscure territory and walked away, just like our main character, a wiser person. Sincere and profound, a remarkable achievement.
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billkerwin | 94 93rd |
This leisurely film, full of warmth and humanity, is composed of many disparate narrative strands, but by '65 Kurosawa was a master storyteller who knew how to weave such strands into a satisfying whole. Each individual shot is gorgeously photographed in black-and-white and artistically framed, yet each is subordinate to the narrative. There are three moments when Kurosawa overdoes it (one violent, two sentimental), but these are small flaws in what is remains an epic artistic achievement.
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Pickpocket | 2 21st |
The narrative is predictable and way too drawn out for its own good. Mifune, who I typically love, is terrible and quite boring here. His mannerisms are usually great to watch but here they just felt forced and unneeded. The fight scene was so unbelievably stupid too. It looks good, sure, but all the random characters start to feel repetitive after awhile and it's difficult to care about most of them. A rare Kurosawa failure.
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Magb | 85 73rd |
I think this is the most mature work I've seen by Kurosawa so far. And although it has its bleak moments it's also uncharacteristically warm and optimistic for him. It's also quite possibly his best-looking film. I will say that I thought the movie was a bit overlong and could probably stand to be cut down by 15-30 minutes, but even the parts that are less pertinent to the main story (such as the story of Sahachi and Onaka) are well worth watching, so I can understand why they were kept in.
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djross | 74 83rd |
Surprisingly affecting melodrama, especially considering it has more than a whiff of high-grade soap (along with an unexpected and unnecessary action scene: was this the film that established the cinematic law that says that, in a 20-against-1 fight scene, the bad guys will always attack serially rather than in concert?), but the situations presented are psychologically interesting and the lessons being taught mostly fairly subtle.
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1 | BrokenTooth | 95 91st |
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Long but never drags
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PeaceAnarchy | 84 77th |
The episodic nature made it feel a bit too long and the sum felt less than the sum of its parts. Thankfully those parts are so wonderful that it's still a really good film. Both Mifune and Kayama are excellent and every scene is filled with meaning and enough of interest to keep your attention. The lighting also stood out, with excellent use of shadows.
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Stain | 50 33rd |
Not bad but Kurosawa's samurai epics are too much like one another
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Spunkie | 75 90th |
On human suffering, trauma, devotion and proposal of utter hope. Impactful, perhaps too much.
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1 | theyshoot07 | 68 48th |
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# 632
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nonself | 81 91st |
tekil planlarin uzun tutulmus olmasi kurgu butunlugunu zedelemis olsa da derebeyligin fakirlestirdigi halkin hastaliklarla sinavini, adanmis bilge doktorun hastalardan ziyade butun bir paradigmayi tedavi etmekteki maharetini anlatan guzide film. Iyiligin tavizsiz ve musamahasiz bir karakterden aktarilmis olmasi da insanin iflah olmaz suistima aliskanligina atifta bulunmaktadir.
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Parallax | 72 28th |
Un-epic epicness. That's Kurosawa here. The tale of two doctors or just one, a stoic Mifune. Ready to unleash the energy of a hurricane, like in the scene where all the bones of the gangsters or yakuza are broken. Time to hold on to life!
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Inframan | 99 98th |
What a wonderful, wonderful movie, whose images are emblazoned in my memory--the wind chimes, the girl offering a sweet to the boy amongst the hanging mats. As far as anamorphic compositions go this is probably just about as good as it gets. Very original experiments with both the wide screen and the long lens. This is truly the culmination of Kurosawa's work throughout the sixties and is a resounding end to that phase of his career.
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sodr2 | 91 91st |
Guy with the red beard is like "get on my level"
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anilscn | 47 39th |
Kurosawa da olsan vasatı geçtim, kötü film yapabiliyorsun. çok kötü film
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Average Percentile 76.47% from 806 Ratings | ![]() |