It's the early nineteenth century, and young Dr. Noboru Yasumoto has been summoned for a reason unknown to him to rural Koishikawa Medical Clinic from Nagasaki, where he has been stationed for three years completing his internship. The clinic, headed by the outwardly stern Dr. Kyojô Niide - nicknamed "Red Beard" for that attribute - under his very strict guidelines, treats the poor and disadvantaged of the region. Much to his surprise and dismay, Yasumoto is told he is to start work there immediately, staff, including doctors, living on site. As he was expecting a position as a physician for a shogunate in his privilege, Yasumoto shows his displeasure at this fate at every turn. He believes this fate was either orchestrated directly by Red Beard in solely wanting access to his detailed professional notes - Yasumoto believing he a much better doctor than his new, more experienced superior - or by the father of a female acquaintance in an effort to get rid of him. Yasumoto may get a different perspective of life as a doctor at the clinic in getting to view Red Beard's methods first hand, as he gets to know the stories of some of the in-patients at the clinic, and as he is assigned his first patient, Otoyo, a twelve year old orphaned girl who was raised in an abusive brothel environment in an effort to seal her supposed future.

Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for Red Beard (1965) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Toshirō Mifune, Yūzō Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Reiko Dan, Miyuki Kuwano, Kyōko Kagawa DIRECTOR: Akira Kurosawa CINEMATOGRAPHY: Asakazu Nakai, Takao Saitō MUSIC: Masaru Satō PRODUCTION: TOHO, Kurosawa Production

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for Red Beard (1965). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Filming & Locations

Principal photography began on December 21, 1963, and wrapped up two years later. Kurosawa got sick twice during filming, while actors Toshiro Mifune and Yūzō Kayama fell ill once each. Mifune would never again work with Kurosawa because the director's increasingly long production schedules required Mifune to turn down too many other TV and movie offers. The set was intended to be as realistic and historically accurate as possible. Film historian Donald Richie wrote that the main set was an entire town with back alleys and side streets, some of which were never even filmed. The materials used were actually about as old as they were supposed to be, with the tiled roofs taken from buildings more than a century old and all of the lumber taken from the oldest available farmhouses. Costumes and props were "aged" for months before being used; the bedding (made in Tokugawa-period patterns) was actually slept in for up to half a year before shooting. The wood used for the main gate was over a hundred years old, and after filming, it was re-erected at the entrance to the theater that hosted Red Beards premiere.

Richie wrote that one could argue that Kurosawa "completely wasted his million yen set," as the main street is seen for only one minute (although its destruction was incorporated into the earthquake scene). Likewise, the scenes with the bridges and those in the elaborately constructed paddy are also rather brief. However, tourist bus companies did run tours through the set during the two years it took to make Red Beard.

According to Stephen Prince's audio commentary on the Criterion Collection's 2002 DVD, the film was shot at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and was Kurosawa's first film to use a magnetic 4-track stereo soundtrack.

[Filming] Principal photography began on December 21, 1963, and wrapped up two years later. Kurosawa got sick twice during filming, while actors Toshiro Mifune and Yūzō Kayama fell ill once each.