The Bad Sleep Well
| The Bad Sleep Well | |
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Original Japanese poster
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| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Produced by | Akira Kurosawa Tomoyuki Tanaka |
| Written by |
Hideo Oguni Eijirô Hisaita Akira Kurosawa Ryûzô Kikushima Shinobu Hashimoto |
| Starring | Toshiro Mifune |
| Music by | Masaru Sato |
| Cinematography | Yuzuru Aizawa |
| Edited by | Akira Kurosawa |
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Production
company |
Toho Studios
Kurosawa Production Co. |
| Distributed by | Toho |
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Release date
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Running time
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151 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
The Bad Sleep Well (悪い奴ほどよく眠る Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru?) is a 1960 film directed by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. It was the first film to be produced under Kurosawa's own independent production company. It was entered into the 11th Berlin International Film Festival.
The film stars Toshiro Mifune as a young man who gets a prominent position in a corrupt postwar Japanese company in order to expose the men responsible for his father's death. It has its roots in Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is also a critique of corporate corruption.
The film begins with a group of news reporters watching, and gossiping, at an elaborate wedding reception for Yoshiko Iwabuchi (Kyoko Kagawa), the daughter of Vice President Iwabuchi (Masayuki Mori, the villain character) of the Unexploited Land Development Corporation, a construction company, and Koichi Nishi, the president's secretary (a bespectacled Toshiro Mifune). The police interrupt the wedding when corporate assistant officer Wada, who is the wedding reception's master of ceremony, is arrested on charges of bribery in a kickback scheme. The reporters comment this incident is similar to an earlier scandal involving Iwabuchi, administrative officer Moriyama, and contract officer Shirai. That earlier case was hushed up after the apparent suicide of Assistant Chief Furuya, by jumping off the corporate office building, creating a dead end in the investigation before any of the company's higher-ups could be implicated.
Following the wedding, the police question Wada (Kamatari Fujiwara) and accountant Miura about bribery of government officials by the Unexploited Land Development Corporation. As a result of the inquiry, Miura commits suicide by running in front of a truck. When Wada attempts to take his own life by jumping into an active volcano, Nishi stops Wada. Nishi convinces Wada that his superiors are unworthy of the sacrifice he had been willing to make. From that point forward, Nishi uses Wada to further his plans for revenge.
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Wikipedia