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| Toshiro
Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kyoko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takashi
Shimura |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Koichi Nishi
(Toshiro Mifune): They
starved you and my father with scraps from their table, killed
you as scapegoats, and still you can't hate them.
A ryoung man attempts to use his
position at the heart of a corrupt company to expose the men responsible
for his father's death.
 Among
Western audiences, Akira Kurosawa is well known as the most accessible
of classic Japanese directors, his work having been so clearly
inspired by Western influences, the two main ones being director
John Ford and playwright William Shakespeare. Kurosawa's great
gift (besides his genius for editing and composition) may have
been his ability to translate these archetypal myths and characters
to Japanese culture without losing either audience (though he was
often accused of being overly 'westernized' within Japan).
The inspiration for his noir-tinged corporate thriller The
Bad Sleep Well is clearly derived from Hamlet, although
Kurosawa's version of the Danish prince (as performed by Toshiro
Mifune) isn't characterized so much by his soliloquys and infinte
procrastinating, but rather by his dedication to vengeance, and
the careful plotting of his nemeses' downfall. By ridding his tale
of Gertrude, the mother figure in the original play, Kurosawa does
away with the Oedipal subtext that has reared its head in so many
Western adaptations of Hamlet, making this a remarkably
fresh - and surprisingly topical - thriller. |
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A Region 2 release is available
from the BFI in the UK without any extras on board, while
the Region 1 Criterion Collection DVD has superior image
quality and some extras. The Criterion release served as
the basis for this review.
The anamorphic widescreen
image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 2.35:1. The
subtle greyscale shadings in the intentionally murky black-and-white
cinematography is served well by an excellent - if not quite
spotless - transfer.
Although the credits boast of a Perspecta stereo soundtrack,
the audio on this release is a simple but adequate mono track.
 The
only extra besides the trailer is another episode in the
somewhat hagiographic but still highly informative Japanese
series Akira Kurosawa - It Is Wonderful To Create,
which offers a rewarding half-hour look at the production.
It incorporates several interviews with many of Kurosawa's
surviving collaborators. Two worthwhile essays are featured
in the nicely designed booklet.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
February 10, 2006
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Bad Sleep Well .
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