Movielogr

Rating: 7.5 stars

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Japan masters of cinema winter novel adaptation remake

All movies seen on 12/01/2013

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The Idiot (1951)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Drama

Overview

A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.

Length 166 minutes

Actors

Setsuko Hara | Masayuki Mori | Toshirō Mifune | Yoshiko Kuga | Takashi Shimura | Chieko Higashiyama | Eijirô Yanagi | Minoru Chiaki | Noriko Sengoku | Kokuten Kôdô | Bokuzen Hidari | Eiko Miyoshi | Chiyoko Fumiya | Mitsuyo Akashi | Daisuke Inoue | Fumio Tooyama | Jun Yokoyama | Atsumi Nakama | Kunio Teshirogi | Shoichi Kofujita | Yoichi Osugi | Keiko Izumi | Haruko Chichibu

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Seventh and final movie in my Kurosawa week. Also a DVD I’ve had for a while courtesy of Masters of Cinema. This is a deep drama that goes from Frank Capra to Billy Wilder in style with its beauty, warmth and tragedy. Wild to see both Mifune and Shimura play second and third fiddle in a film together but they add the necessary color and sociopathic flourishes to propel the core story and characters. The drama and interactions within the snowy Hokkaido setting really punctuate this Dostoevsky adaptation.

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