Hakuchi (1951)

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (novel)
Eijirô Hisaita (writer)

Release Date:

30 April 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women...

Plot Keywords:

Modern Day Adaptation | Remake | Dostoevsky | Prince | Love Triangle

Cast

Setsuko Hara	...	Taeko Nasu
Masayuki Mori	...	Kinji Kameda
Toshirô Mifune	...	Denkichi Akama
Takashi Shimura	...	Ono, Ayako's father
Chieko Higashiyama	...	Satoko, Ayako's mother
Chiyoko Fumiya	...	Noriko
Eijirô Yanagi	...	Tohata
Yoshiko Kuga	...	Ayako
Minoru Chiaki	...	Mutsuo Kayama, the secretary
Eiko Miyoshi	...	Madame Kayama
Noriko Sengoku	...	Takako
Mitsuyo Akashi	...	Madame Akama

Also Known As:

The Idiot (USA)
Der Idiot (West Germany) [de]
El idiota (Spain) [es]
Idiootti (Finland) (TV title) [fi]
Idiota (Poland) [pl]
Idioten (Sweden) [sv]
Idioten (Denmark) [da]
L'idiot (France) [fr]
L'idiota (Italy) [it]
O Idiota (Brazil) [pt]
O ilithios (Greece) [el]

Runtime:

166 min | Japan:180 min (premiere) | Japan:265 min (extended version)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:6 | New Zealand:PG | Australia:PG | Finland:K-11 | Switzerland:16 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Hokkaido, Japan

Company:

Shôchiku Eiga

Trivia:

Filmed as a two-part production running 265 minutes. Shochiku (the studio) told Akira Kurosawa that the film had to be cut in half, because it was too long; he told them, "In that case, better cut it lengthwise." The film was released truncated at 166 minutes.

Movie Connections:

Version of Návrat idiota (1999)

Putrid - Kurosawa's worst by a large margin

Yikes! Most of my least favorite Kurosawa flicks before this one were quite a distance above mediocre. I think my least favorite had been Dersu Uzala, which is pretty forgettable, but has its moments (the building of the hut to shield from the wind in particular). The Idiot is by a vast chasm Kurosawa's worst film. Part of this is not his fault. His original cut ran four hours plus, while the studio's released version runs less than three. The story, based on Dostoyevsky's novel, feels chopped to bits. I think I got the gist of it by the end, but it's only barely comprehensible by itself. Perhaps the film stands decently if you've read the source material. However, there is plenty of legitimate criticism of what we do have to justify calling it Kurosawa's worst anyway. This material just doesn't fit Kurosawa's talent. He always has a penchant for melodrama, and that works fairly well in the historical films, as well as his crime films. In fact, in every other film I've seen from him it has worked at least okay. Here, it feels hopelessly misplaced. The set-pieces are so over-performed and even over-directed that they become painful to sit through. Of course, it might help if I knew what the heck was going on. About the only real piece of interest is Ozu's muse Setsuko Hara playing a rather nasty woman, a femme fatale of sorts. It's kind of playing against type, and she does a pretty good job. I can't say I feel the same for Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, or the film's star, Masayuki Mori.