Rating: 
Summary: One of the master's best.
Review: Having recently seen "Red Beard" for the first time, I was taken by two things. First that Coppola's "White Dwarf" is a clear-cut remake of this film. Second that this one the best three hours I have spent watching a movie in a very long time.
There is a soul and heart in this film that is lacking in most movies and enough to say that it artfully uses it 3 hours with grace.
Rating:
Summary: One of the master's best.
Review: Having recently seen "Red Beard" for the first time, I was taken by two things. First that Coppola's "White Dwarf" is a clear-cut remake of this film. Second that this one the best three hours I have spent watching a movie in a very long time.
There is a soul and heart in this film that is lacking in most movies and enough to say that it artfully uses it 3 hours with grace.
Rating:
Summary: Show Me A Movie More Inspiring Than This
Review: I dare you people out there. Kurosawa's most inspiring work is one breathtaking 3 hour ride into the hearts and minds of clinical doctors that has still not been matched by any ER episode. Every frame in this piece looks and feels beautiful, and thank you to Criterion for doing so. I haven't seen a Kurosawa film that has been remastered to this degree. It will be a hard one to follow-up on quality. I actually would recommmend this film to people who loved Amelie. Why? Both are incredibly inspiring movies, but Red Beard is on the other side of the spectrum. It deals with death, despair, incurable illness within the heart, but by the end of the film, you are more inspired by the will to live, to make something of yourself that you never felt before. That is what Kurosawa wanted to make, and he truly went for it on his last black and white film. The irony of what happens 5 years later. He was only human as we were. We love and miss you Kurosawa-Kantoku.Best shot/sequence: Here's where Kurosawa does his best. The scene where Chobo is dying and the maids are yelling down the well, the camera tilts down from the faces of the maids into the reflection of water at the bottom of the well, but gives the illusion that the camera has shifted to the bottom of the well looking up at the maids. With a single teardrop from Otoyo hitting the face of the water, then we realize that the camera is actually hidden above them. Genuine masterwork.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting film, but over long and preachy
Review: I'll keep this short. The message of the film was aptly delivered 1/3 of the way through, and the entire film should only have been 2/3 as long as it was. Although this movie has all of Kurosawa's technical mastery in it, it's also rather cliched. It definitely overstayed it's welcome.
Rating: 
Summary: Kurosawa introduces psychoanalysis to the Japanese
Review: In addition to being about the relationship between the young and old doctors, "Red Beard" is Kurosawa's can-opener for the Japanese psyche, with which he gently urges very private people everywhere to recognize how many hold deep hidden suffering inside them, which makes them ill, and the value of sharing those secrets. Again and again, the movie is about how hidden secrets make people sick, and how the old doctor can intuit the presence of these secrets and give patients some way to relieve them. This may be considered the deep subtext of the film, beneath the coming-of-age drama that centers on the young doctor. The film is beautiful, strikingly directed and acted, with moments that are amazing cadenzas of acting skill, where the director allows the actors to show how much they can make out of an emotion through their body-language. It may also appear heavy-handed and obvious at times to Western viewers, who have had a hundred years of Freudian exploration of psychosomatic medicine. But if I understand the context, Kurosawa is asking many of his Japanese viewers to consider for the first time the enormous hidden harm caused by physical and sexual abuse, extreme poverty (and extreme wealth), some uses of traditional authority, patriarchial attitudes, the prideful identification with a dead aristocracy, government policies that punish the poor, broken and bruised hearts resulting from complicated and entangled relationships, resourcefully anti-social adaptations to oppression, and other dark shadows beneath the enameled glaze of contemporary Japanese complacency. Forgive me if that sounds overstated. But watch for it just under the surface of the fllm, again and again, and increasingly as the film goes on. The film strikes me as a profound and profoundly sad social document, braced by a heroic sense that individuals can still make a difference. It's not just, as you will read elsewhere, an uplifting story about two doctors. There is much more, and that more is a tragic vision of how people and society conspire in a dance of self-defeat, and where a caring person might try to change this.
Rating:
Summary: More Relevant Today Than Ever
Review: In Japan "Akahige" has come to mean selfless devotion to mankind, something you see very rarely in the medical profession today. This movie, so many people have noted over the years, should be mandatory viewing for every young student aspiring to become a doctor. Yet this is also a movie about selfishness and common petiness. Red Beard's humanity contrasts vividly against a backdrop of poverty and injustice. Yuzo Kayama shines as the vein young doctor who is transformed to a selfless care giver of the poor as he interns under Red Beard played by Toshiro Mifune. Many of the subplots have become cliche over the years and the movie may lag at times, but over all, this is a great masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest films ever produced
Review: In my opinion, this is one of Akira Kurosawa's best films, which means it is automatically a classic of world cinema. As way of introduction, I would personally say of myself that I am bit of a cynic- I certainly do not expect a movie to 'change my life'. Movies are meant as entertainment, and one shouldn't look for more than that in a flick. In the case of this film, however, I have seen something on the screen which has changed my perspective on things. I was deeply touched by the message of compassion in this film; not compassion as merely ones duty, or the contemptuous compassion of pity, but compassion as way of life. Compassion as a way of confirming the value of life. This is a powerful message- and a message that lingers long after the film is finished. It is inevitable that any story that attempts to convey a moral or an idea be a bit 'preachy' - the story will always find itself somewhat in service of the parable. But, as noted above, this is a Kurosawa film. We are in the hands of a master storyteller here, and it shows in every frame, every scene and in every performance, especially that of Toshiro Mifune. Kurosawa once again uses Mifune as the glue to hold a film together, and he once again delivers. Every performance in here is a gem, many of them given by actors Kurosawa has favored in other films. But these are all but planets to Mifune's sun. By any measure this is a great film. As with Seven Samurai, the length of the film is never felt to be excessive, as each moment of the movie is used to tell a compelling story. I feel fortunate that this film has finally been made available on DVD, where I will have the opportunity to enjoy it in years to come. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Red Beard, black and white emotions
Review: Magisterial and impeccably executed, a perfectly designed, crafted, and carpentered movie. But, very stiff and wooden. Kurosawa's films up to Yojimbo were memorable for their sense of tension. Kurosawa always had a sentimental sermonizing streak, which, however, was thankfully held in check with vitality drawn from European and American influences. Red Beard seems to be modeled on the didacticism of Confucius. Kurosawa portrays the character of Red Beard as noble teacher and the poor as the salt-of-the-earth. Just when Japanese cinema was moving in exciting new directions, Kurosawa made his most old-fashioned movie. Still, it's a work of such fine craftmanship, care, and perfectionism, with such dedicated performances from everyone involved that it has to be considered a masterwork if not exactly a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Red Beard
Review: Not only is this Kurosawa's best, but My all time Favorite movie ever made!
Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: One must watch this film sometime in their life. It is as close to being a "Citizen Kane" -like film as possible, poignant, dramatic, and fascinating. Certainly one of the finest films I have ever seen and I am a 54 year old teacher. The film maybe Japanese, but the themes of individual character and virtue are timeless and universal. The DVD is absolutely superb. The black and white is incredible. The commentary on the DVD should be listened to after one has watched the movie. It is enlightening!
Be prepared to watch the 3 hour film in one go. Even the intermission is interesting to watch and the music beautiful.
You will enjoy this amazing film.
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