Akahige [Region 2]
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![Akahige [Region 2]](/pictures/Akahige.jpg) |
Features
• PAL
In Theaters : 19 December, 1968 |
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Akahige [Region 2] description
Featuring the final collaboration between esteemed director Akira Kurosawa (Kagemusha, The Seven Samurai) and actor Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo, Hell in the Pacific), this 1965 film explores the complex and tumultuous relationship between a doctor and his protégé, and the meaning of compassion and responsibility. Mifune plays the title character, a revered but stern and unbendable physician ministering to the poor in a clinic, driven by a sense of calling to the profession of medicine and to mankind. He is assigned a young brash intern whose rebellious and arrogant attitude threaten to disrupt the hospital and destroy his burgeoning career. Under the intense tutelage of the relentlessly stern doctor, however, the young doctor in training goes from a spoiled wunderkind insulted at having to work at a clinic he thinks is beneath him, to one who appreciates the compassionate nature of a doctor's calling. A long, intimate, and engrossing film, it displays some of Mifune's finest work as a man whose profound sense of higher purpose touches all around him. An earnest exploration of duty and honor, Red Beard is an unlikely but worthy addition to the enduring legacy of Akira Kurosawa. --Robert Lane |
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Akahige [Region 2] Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
An Hour too Long
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I didn't check the running time of "Red Beard" before watching it. At a point I though might be the end, I was surprized to see "Intermission" pop up on the screen. This movie runs just over 3 hours and there really isn't a reason for any more than the standard 2 hour length. If it had kept within those confines, this would likely merit 5 stars from me as well. However, when you take too long to make a point...well, maybe I'd better move on to something else myself.
What makes "Red Beard" the (near)great movie that it is comes from the evolving humane compassion it displays. A young doctor finds himself assigned to some charity clinic instead of the job he was expecting as the personal physician to some big shot Shogun. We can figure out right away what direction the movie will take but it is still a joy in watching it develop (except that it dragged out so...but wait, we weren't going to talk about that anymore). The title character is played by Toshiro Mifune but he may have been asked to do too much. There is an unnecessary (there I go again) scene that seems meant for a samurai movie (which, of course, Kurosawa knowa how to make).
There are many different characters in the movie but the best ones, in my opinion, are the cooks who seem to be a sort of Greek chorus that measures the emotional changes that take place throughout the movie. This really is a good movie with a master film-maker who knows how to create an emotional statement. If he could've taken less...oh, better not get started on that again. |
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Akahige [Region 2] dvd movie.