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Summary: Deceit and betrayal in the world of the salaryman
Review: "The Bad Sleep Well" is a great movie. Imagine taking the major characters of "Hamlet," and casting them in a new plot. Revenge for the death of a father is still the issue, but with very different methods. The world of the salaryman is dark and cold, and only a dark and cold man can succeed. I am reminded of Nietzsche: "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." This may be one of Kurosawa's best films. The mood is perfect. The scenes are perfect. Mifune is perfect. He wears a suit with the same danger as he wears his Kimono. His briefcase is no less deadly than his sword. As a Kurosawa trademark, the ending is an exclamation point rather than a period. All the wrong people are dead, and all the wrong people walk away clean. This movie is not pleasant. It is, however, very good.
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Summary: Another jewel of the immortal Kurosawa !
Review: Akira Kurosawa was one the supreme masters of the cinema . In his craft the story emerges and converges in a real complex web of emotive relations , acquiring a story - no matter how simple is- a special status . That Midas touch makes the difference between Kurosawa and the rest .
It is a wedding party of formal rite and suddenly is perturbed by murder accusation , suspects of opportunism by part of the fiancée and a policial arrest .In the other hand a young executive wins the trust of a great industrial magnate , becomes literally in his right arm and marries with his faughter . Really the father of that man has been murdered by the magnate and his hencmen, and have not any kind of trouble with their methods of enriching without a little drop of scruple . So the initial motive of the hero is simple revenge , though his young wife inspires him a deep tenderness .
Acquire this magnificent film of A.K.
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Summary: Classic Kurosawa/Mifune
Review: Any cinema fan will note the opening wedding scene in The Bad Sleep Well, and its influence on American film makers. Kurosawa carefully sets up the tensions that will explode in (off-screen) violence near the film's conclusion.
Here's why you should run out and buy this dvd: Mifune is great, the story riveting, the direction immaculate. The actors from Kurosawa's stock cast turn in wonderful performances, and the story has relevance today as much as when the film was made. When Mifune whistles, I get chills.
Don't miss this!
Rating: 
Summary: Good flick; Meh Ah Laser Disc Co.
Review: I purchased this because I heard the Criterion was releasing an unannounced version. The Chinese Mei Ah version has been out for a while and could be ordered well before this out of Hong Kong, so I was surprised when I opened the box and found the Mei Ah version.
If you've ever mistakenly purchased a Mei Ah Japanese DVD, you'll know what I'm saying. These are produced for a Chinese market. A Chinese person translates the Japanese into Chinese. To broaden the market and perhaps sell to English speakers in Hong Kong, a Chinese person then translates the Chinese into English, or what's supposed to pass as English, but at times is closer to a pidgen language.
I've already suffered through these translations with Mei Ah once and I'm returning this unadvertised version unopened and canceling my Dodes Kaden order (I already have that on Mei Ah, also, and though I enjoy this movie I've never made it through once with the DVD and watch my old VHS instead.)
Short story: if you don't need the subtitles, this version will work. It may even work when you turn the Chinese subtitles on if you can read Chinese. But if you're an English speaker, you can laugh at the translations.
Shame on Amazon for hoisting this over on us by not stating on the sales page that this is a Mei Ah import!!
Movie: 5 stars from watching the VHS. DVD: 0 stars.
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Summary: Japanese artfilm-false buy??
Review: I thought-someone told me that-Ed McBain was the writer of the short story,where the movie was based on.That's why I bought it.
I did not find any confirmation or clue on this.
Can anyone help me,I am intriged.
Thanks.
P.S.Movie is OK. if you like this japanese form of art.
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Summary: Not so sweet revenge!
Review: It amazes me how contempory Kurosawa's movies are. The plot and characters in this film are as believable today as they were forty years ago. Boy, does this film run hot and cold! One moment is chillingly serious and the next is incredibly funny. The best scene in the movie is when Mifune takes the "dead" official to his own funeral. Mifune's whistle is wonderfully diabolical! Mori cooking dinner is a riot! There is a very funny moment when Mifune plants the five million yen in the unsuspecting officials briefcase. As with most Kurosawa films this one hasn't a wasted moment. The acting is superb and the script is so well written that what could have been a very confusing story is clear as a bell. The moral of this movie.....Be careful what you ask for you might get it!
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Summary: One of AK's best
Review: It is unfortunate that Luanne Brown's editorial review of The Bad Sleep Well is so negative. The beginning is no more "tedious" or "flawed" than the ending is "out of sync." In fact, both the beginning and end of the film are quite brilliant, as is the body of the film. Few, if any, directors could have told such a complex story in a such a clear and gripping way. Many people first become aware of Kurosawa through his samurai films, especially Yojimbo and Seven Samurai. If you haven't seen his contemporary films, The Bad Sleep Well is one of the best, along with Stray Dog and High and Low.
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Summary: Based on Hamlet
Review: Most people who watch Akira Kurosawa's films don't seem to read much Shakespere. Of course, I may be wrong. However, it hardly seems so because only one of the reviews bothers to mention that this particular film is based upon Hamlet, a work by Shakespere. This is the case, really, for most of Akira's films. Throughout his life, he often drew inspiration from the ideas and themes expressed throughout Shakespere's works. This film is hardly tedious, though it requires as much attention as would witnessing a play by shakespere. The good part about this film is, you don't have to understand the old English that Shakespere used in writing his plays. I watched it when I was only 13 years old and understood it perfectly. Not only that, I found myself enthralled and inspired by it. It's a wonderful and simple indroduction to the works of Shakespere for anyone interested in reading any of his works. The Japanese sensibilities and cultural nuances attached to this film only add to the lushness of it and broaden the observer's experience. It shows the observer that the themes and ideas of Shakespere's stories are international and timeless. A masterpiece in any language. However, I would not recommend this film for the common movie goer expecting a "cheap thrill". This story is no "Titanic" or "Legally Blonde". It has only good actors a fine plot and an excellent director.It is cinema gourmet not fast food.
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Summary: Wrong Or Right Don't Matter Here
Review: Possible plot point marked with #.
Well...what to say about this Japaneese movie. One of the recommendations I had heard for similar movies was Ichi the Killer. Yup.
A much less violent movie by far. But then again it was from 1960 so im assuming the censors wouldnt have allowed Ichi level violence back then. The basic story is (and this is told in the description of the movie, at least Netflixs description of it, so not really a spoiler) a person blames his fathers death, a suicide, on the company he worked for. So this person set out to make the lives of those held responsible a living hell. ###He literally drives one of the people clinically insane.### There is an air of creepiness to this character since he doesnt seem to have any remorse at all. ###Heck half the time hes whistling a sweet tune like hes in a Disney movie and trying to attract small woodland animals! This is even when hes about to go kill or torture someone! I found that very creepy and didnt want to ruin it for someone else who happens to skip this and watch the film. Although if you read this then oh well, guess youll just have to see if its still creepy when youre not taken by surprise by it.###
What it intersting about this movie is the dynamic it sets up. You feel the man is vindicated in taking revenge for his fathers death. But at the same time you feel sorry for what he is putting these people through. When i watched it i ended up with a little bit of sympathy for both sides, blurring the line of what was right and wrong. One of the ways Kurosawa did this was ###the man who is torturing the people makes them think one of thier own is dead. But he keeps the person alive and hidden. So when they see the man they think they are seeing his ghost. This character also acts as a foil for the violent acts of the person. You can see him in the backgroud questioning this other mans intentions, but feeling helpless to do anything about them.###
The dynamic itself propells this movie through its running time of close to three hours (2 hrs, 40 mins) The movie is on BOTH sides of the disk so dont be surprised if the movie abrubtly ends or starts somewhere in the middle for some reason. For me it took a while to get into what was going on and understand it. Part of the problem was the crappy subtitles. Engrish is very heavy here. I was laughing at some of them so hard i had missed what someone had said. Plus where youre having to read a movie, it helps if you understand what is being said. I think this movie also relies some on knowing the Japaneese culture some because there was terminology i just didnt get. They kept talking about The Public something. The Public what?
This movie leaves you wondering just what good and bad really mean. Are there some bad acts that can be justified? Can good intentions be done for bad purposes? That murky gray area is explored intricately in this film. You run around lost in the fog for a couple of hours, unsure exactly where to go or how to feel and, even aftr the movies over and the fog has lifted, you still arent sure where to go from there. If youre in the mood for an interesting, thought provoking movie (and dont mind reading crappy subtitles) then id say check this one out.
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Summary: Rare combination of style and substance
Review: The Bad Sleeps Well is near-perfection: from the showy introduction of the wedding banquet to the riveting conclusion of BAD-man Iwabuchi's (Mori in an almost unrecognisable role) phonecall. The impression here is corruption knows no end --- whichever way you go on the hierarchy of the power structure. Most of the "Kurosawa familiy" of actors are here, but Akira Nishimura as Shirai brings a touch of humor (perhaps a perverse kind on the viewer's part) to his torture sequence. Takeshi Kato also gets to express himself more than his role in High and Low allows. Much of the film has a "Western" overtone - down to rich playboy Tatsuo's game of hunting, and the interior of the ruined factory that's reminiscent of dungeons in WWII films...oh boy. You won't forget Nishii's (Mifune in restrained mode) whistling - masterfully used here for characterization and musical counterpoint. "He's no man! He's an official!"
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