The Bad Sleep Well Director: Akira Kurosawa Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-12-02 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.0 "What can I say? See It!" There really were cover-up suicides by government officials at the time this movie was made. So this movie is also a sort of social commentary; the only such movie by Kurosawa. Yet, it is both art and entertainment at its best. A rare mix. Mifune does not get good reviews in modern outfits. He does not look as good as when he is in a kimono. But when he appears out of the smoke in a suicide scene on top of a vulcano, you might think he was the inspiration for Darth Vader. This complex hero, motivated by vengence but softened by love, is a mix of good and evil in a transition between boy and man. Greek myths were never made better. Too bad the title, which is so catchy, poetic and ironic in Japanese, does not translate very well. Don't let that be a turn-off. This movie will be engraved in your memory for the rest of your life. "Please don't miss this film!" Amazingly, there are three (count 'em) early Kurasawa's on my all-time top twenty list of films, _Stray Dog_, _High and Low_ and _The Bad Sleep Well_. A classic thriller. I'm the wierd, bossy lady you'll sometimes see hangin' in the video store, collaring art school and film students, thrusting these three knockouts in their hands, as if their lives depended on their viewing them... well, maybe their creative, thinking lives _do_ depend on it. "Rare combination of style and substance" The Bad Sleeps Well is near-perfection: from the showy introduction of the wedding banquet to the riveting conclusion of BAD-man Iwabuchi's (Mori in an almost unrecognisable role) phonecall. The impression here is corruption knows no end --- whichever way you go on the hierarchy of the power structure. Most of the "Kurosawa familiy" of actors are here, but Akira Nishimura as Shirai brings a touch of humor (perhaps a perverse kind on the viewer's part) to his torture sequence. Takeshi Kato also gets to express himself more than his role in High and Low allows. Much of the film has a "Western" overtone - down to rich playboy Tatsuo's game of hunting, and the interior of the ruined factory that's reminiscent of dungeons in WWII films...oh boy. You won't forget Nishii's (Mifune in restrained mode) whistling - masterfully used here for characterization and musical counterpoint. "He's no man! He's an official!"