The Bad Sleep Well [Criterion Collection]

Director: Akira Kurosawa Akira Kurosawa

Overview

Akira Kurosawa's powerful story of corruption and murder in the boardrooms of Japanese commerce gets a long overdue release on North American DVD with is top-shelf release from The Criterion Collection. Warui Yatsu Hodo Yoku Nemuru (aka The Bad Sleep Well) has been given a widescreen transfer to disc, letterboxed on standard monitors at the aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and enhanced for 16 x 9 playback on widescreen equipment. Telecine supervisor Lee Kline has done an especially fine job with this title, capturing the deep-focus details and sharp contrasts of Yuzuru Aizawa's camerawork with commendable accuracy. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono; the dialogue is in Japanese, with optional English subtitles that are clear and easy to read. As a bonus, this edition includes the film's original theatrical trailer as well as a 33-minute episode from the series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create which focuses on the making of The Bad Sleep Well and features insightful interviews with members of the cast and crew. Finally, the accompanying booklet features perceptive essays on the movie from filmmaker Michael Almereyda and author Chuck Stephens. Criterion's DVD releases are widely regarded as the gold standard of home video, and this simple but carefully executed disc is a fine example of their determination to do right by every film they release, and it's an impressive achievement.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/10/2006
UPC:	0037429207529
Original Release:	1960
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	2:30:00
Sales rank:	11,423

Special Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer; A 33-minute documentary on the making of The Bad Sleep Well; Original theatrical trailer; New and improved English subtitle translation; New essays by film critic Chuck Stephens and director Michael Almereyda

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Toshiro Mifune	Koichi Nishi
Takeshi Kato	Itakura
Masayuki Mori	Public Corporation Vice President Iwabuchi
Akira Nishimura	Public Corporation Vice President Iwabuchi
Takashi Shimura	Moriyama
Kamatari Fujiwara	Wada
Gen Shimizu	Miura
Kyoko Kagawa	Keiko
Tatsuya Mihashi	Tatsuo
Kyu Sazanka	Kaneko
Chishu Ryu	Nonaka
Seiji Miyaguchi	Okakura
Kenjiro Ishiyama	Det. Taguchi
Masayuki Katou	Actor
Ko Kimura	Det. Arai
Tatsuya Nakadai	Insp. Tokuro
Yutaka Sada	Aoki, chauffeur
Yoshio Tsuchiya	Det. Murata
Tsutomu Yamazaki	Ginji Takeuchi, kidnaper
Nobuo Nakamura	Lawyer
Susumu Fujita	Commissioner
Koji Mitsui	Journalist
Masaru Satô	Composer

Technical Credits

Akira Kurosawa

Hideo Oguni

Eijiro Hisaita

Ryuzo Kikushima

Shinobu Hashimoto

Akira Kurosawa	Director,Producer,Screenwriter
Tomoyuki Tanaka	Producer
Hideo Oguni	Screenwriter
Eijiro Hisaita	Screenwriter
Ryuzo Kikushima	Screenwriter
Shinobu Hashimoto	Screenwriter

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- The Bad Sleep Well
1. Logos / Opening Credits [2:09]
2. The Wedding [5:56]
3. "Best One-Act I've Ever Seen" [12:29]
4. Headlines [1:27]
5. In Custody [6:28]
6. "Through to the Bitter End" [3:26]
7. "Do Suicides Prove Corruption?" [4:43]
8. Wada's Funeral [6:25]
9. Family Matters [2:49]
10. X Marks the Spot [3:33]
11. Missing: Five Million in Cash [5:02]
12. The Ghost of Wada [3:58]
13. Tatsuo's Guilt [5:04]
14. "That's What It Means to be On Top!" [4:01]
15. Iwabuchi Cookout [3:40]
16. Chirai Cracks [3:45]
17. Hired Gun [3:38]
18. Scene of the Crime [9:06]
19. A Mysterious Link [2:18]
20. "It's Not Easy Hating Evil" [4:30]
21. A Child? [3:30]
22. Itakura [4:07]
23. The Room Falls Silent [2:03]
24. Captive [4:25]
25. Memories Among Ruins [3:21]
26. Waiting Out Moriyama [5:10]
27. Reunion [10:33]
28. Father's Betrayal [7:56]
29. Muraki Inn Safe [1:53]
30. "So Simple and Yet So Foul!" [8:33]
31. Sleep Well [4:38]
32. Color Bars
1. Introduction [1:28]
2. "A Touchy Subject" [4:17]
3. Wedding Scene [1:52]
4. The Cast and Kurosawa [11:46]
5. Production Challenges [10:35]
6. The Great Evil [2:32]

Menu

Disc #1 -- The Bad Sleep Well
   Play The Movie
   Chapters
   Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful To Create
      Play
      Index
   Trailer
   Subtitles
      English Subtitles: On
      English Subtitles: Off

Editorial Reviews

Akira Kurosawa takes on corporate corruption in Japan with a nod to Shakespeare's Hamlet. The concept of honor, is often at the center of Kurosawa's work, as well as a sense of outrage on behalf of the exploited. Both figure prominently here as Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune), plans to exact revenge for the death of his father, a corporate executive who was forced to commit suicide by his colleagues. In the famed opening wedding sequence, analogous to Hamlet's play-within-a-play, an enormous wedding cake in the shape of the corporation's office building reveals the manner of the man's suicide, shocking the guests. The Darwinian atmosphere of Japan's feudalistic corporate world is laid open for inspection and condemnation by the director, as Mifune tries to destroy the company from within. Coupled with the later High and Low (1962) it suggests the high cost of idealism in the midst of corruption. It can be difficult to adjust to Mifune in a business suit, and the relative restraint of his swift economical gestures, but he's again magnificent in part utterly unlike the samurai work for which he's known. The film has a stark, contrasty look, which, along with Kurosawa's characteristic geometric cuts, seems to suggest the moral absolutism of his vision.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello