The Bad Sleep Well

Warui Yatsu hodo yoku nemeru

Dir. Akira Kurosawa

Japan 1960 | Black & white | 127 mins | Cert PG | Drama

Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takeshi Kato

Kurosawa’s first independent venture is a revenge tragedy in which a rising executive (Toshiro Mifune) attempts to expose big business corruption. As an employee of a big housing corporation, he marries the boss's daughter in the hope of establishing the truth of his father’s ‘suicide’. The explicit social significance may now seem reminiscent of a Warner Bros. drama, but it proved controversial in Japan at the time, and there is nothing dated about Kurosawa’s deft handling of the TohoScope format.

Available on: DVD, 35mm