Red Beard

Kurosawa’s episodic, poignant story of a 19th-century doctor (Toshiro Mifune) working in a clinic for the poor and his tumultuous friendship with a young intern.

Kurosawa’s long, episodic, poignant story of a 19th-century doctor (Toshiro Mifune) working in a clinic for the poor and his tumultuous friendship with a socially ambitious intern (Yuzo Kayama).

Marking the end of a major phase in his career, it was Kurosawa’s last film starring Mifune, his last in black and white, and his last before changing economic circumstances compelled him to seek funding either independently or outside Japan. A grand and studied statement, it sums up the enduring humanism of Kurosawa’s cinema.