Red Beard

While ethical questions abound in the late Akira Kurosawa's films, they seldom play as central a role as in Red Beard, which stars Toshiro Mifune--in his last collaboration with the director--in the title role as a dictatorial doctor running a poorly funded government clinic. Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama), fresh out of medical school, is initially upset at being assigned to this unglamorous post for his internship, but learns under Red Beard's tutelage that becoming a successful doctor requires becoming an excellent human being. While the plot may sound like any number of Hollywood films (usually starring Robin Williams in Mifune's role), the character depth and attention to detail, historical as well as psychological, make this an exceptionally moving experience. As might be expected, this Criterion release sports a fine DVD transfer, with the b&w image featuring an exceptionally rich level of detail (the only noticeable flaw is the abundance of parallel lines, which causes kimonos and rooftops to shimmer wildly), and a solid Dolby Digital 4.0 soundtrack. On the extras side, the disc features a commentary track by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince that provides a good introduction to both the film and Kurosawa's work as a whole. Highly recommended. (B. Grafius)