Hakuchi (1951)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (novel)
Eijirô Hisaita (writer)
(more)

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:

Love Triangle | Remake | Prince | Based On Novel

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bokuzen Hidari	...	Karube (uncredited)
Daisuke Inoue	...	Kaoru (uncredited)
Kokuten Kodo	...	Jumpei (uncredited)

Directed by
Akira Kurosawa

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky		novel "The Idiot"
Eijirô Hisaita		writer
Akira Kurosawa		writer

Produced by
Takashi Koide	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Fumio Hayasaka

Cinematography by
Toshio Ubukata

Film Editing by
Akira Kurosawa

Production Design by
So Matsuyama

Set Decoration by
Genzo Komiya		(settings)
Shohei Sekine		(settings)
Ushitaro Shimada

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Yoshitaro Nomura	....	chief assistant director

Sound Department
Yoshisaburo Imo	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Akio Tamura	....	lighting technician

Editorial Department
Yoshi Sugihara	....	assistant editor

Production Companies

• Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

Distributors

• Shochiku Company (1951) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Concorde Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2008) (USA) (DVD) (as Eclipse from the Criterion Collection)
• Eureka Video (2005) (UK) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (DVD)
• Sandrew Metronome Distribution (2009) (Finland) (DVD)
• Sandrews (2009) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Shochiku Films of America (????) (USA) (theatrical)
• Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo (1963) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Toho Company (1963) (USA) (theatrical)
• YLE Teema (2005) (Finland) (TV)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1984) (Finland) (TV)

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:

Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

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 Idiot (1958)

265-minute version

jonr-3 from Kansas City wonders if the 265-minute version will ever be released.

The answer is a definitive NO because every frame of unreleased footage no longer exists anywhere in any form.

It's a shame, because the film -- fascinating and electrifying as it is in its present form -- would probably have been one of the greatest examples of intertextual cinema of all time had it survived!

One can easily imagine what we're missing simply by examining the way that the initial scene on the train plays out as Mori explains his dream about nearly being executed to Mifune -- and then we are presented with a jarringly disturbing cut to a long intertitle, which basically seems to explain what was cut out by the studio execs [as do the many intertitles which follow]...

Kurosawa's hero-worship of Doestoevsky may be compared to his similar adoration of Gorky and his play "The Lower Depths" -- which is faithfully adapted in the 1957 filmic version -- and although it is much shorter than the tale told by The Idiot {sorry, couldn't resist!}, this reverence in no way makes the film boring or inferior. Just compare it to the 1936 Renoir version (which is quite good in many ways in its own right) to see how this faithfulness pays off...

Read the Doesty and then watch the film and fill in the blanks yourself. Kurosawa's filmic blueprint provides plenty of clues to how the missing footage might have been incorporated into this extremely underseen masterpiece.