Cinematic Point Of View

What an incredible movie! Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard. Moving this film up among my favorites.

The story is about Noboru Yasumoto, a young, up-and-coming doctor, played by Yûzô Kayama, who hopes to land a high profile position right out of school. Instead, Dr. Yasumoto is placed in a poor, rural community working for a nonprofit hospital run by a wise and wounded doctor known as Red Beard, played by Toshiro Mifune.

As Dr. Yasumoto begins treating patients under the guidance of Red Beard, listening to their stories, and forming relationships with the staff, Dr. Yasumoto finds himself changing and starts to feel deeply connected to his staff and patients.

There is a scene where Red Beard attempts to give a young woman some medicine. She is trapped in a sort of PTSD existence. Every time he tries to give her the drink of medicine, she knocks it away. Red Beard simply refills the glass and tries again. She knocks it away. Over and over and over and over this plays out. Every time he keeps a neutral composure, committed to treating her. It’s truly agonizing and deeply moving scene, one of many in this movie. The level of patience and compassion on display is legendary. You forget you’re watching a movie.

For all the heartbreak and suffering within Red Beard, this is a film about love, patience, and kindness. Even with the film’s 3 hour run time, I wasn’t ready for it to end. I wanted to spend more time with these people. To walk along in their world and see where life takes them. They are truly angels among men.

Unfortunately, Red Beard was the last collaboration between Kurosawa and Mifune. They created so many memorable movies together over the years.

I can’t recommend this movie enough. In my book, it ranks at the very top of Kurosawa’s filmography and is one of his most honest and human works of art.