Red Beard (1965) on Netflix
Trained in Nagasaki, Dr. Noboru Yasumoto expects a post as the shogun's physician. Instead he is assigned to a rural clinic run by the stern Dr. Kyojō Niide, and he rebels.
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Trailer
Plot summary
In the early nineteenth century, Noboru Yasumoto returns to Edo from Dutch medical school in Nagasaki and presents himself at a public clinic, believing the visit is a courtesy call arranged by his father. Dr. Kyojō Niide, known as Red Beard, tells him he is to work there at once, living on the grounds. Yasumoto wants a prestigious post as a shogun's physician and considers the clinic and its poor patients beneath him. He refuses to wear the uniform, will not see patients, dislikes the food, and drinks sake against the rules, hoping to be sent away. Around him the staff treat the sick and destitute of the district, giving up sun, heat and bedding to those in their care.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Red Beard (1965)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Toshiro Mifune never worked with director Akira Kurosawa again after Red Beard, because Kurosawa's increasingly long production schedules required Mifune to turn down too many other television and movie offers.
- The main set of Red Beard was built as a whole town of back alleys and side streets, some never even filmed; film historian Donald Richie noted its tiled roofs came from buildings over a century old and its lumber from the oldest farmhouses available.
- Costumes and props for Red Beard were aged for months before being used, and the bedding, made in Tokugawa-period patterns, was actually slept in for up to half a year before shooting.
- Film historian Donald Richie argued Kurosawa wasted his million-yen set: the main street appears for only one minute, though its destruction was folded into the film's earthquake scene.
- The wood used for the main gate of Red Beard's set was over a hundred years old, and after filming it was re-erected at the entrance to the theater that hosted the film's premiere.
- Tourist bus companies ran tours through the Red Beard set during the two years it took to make the film.
