THE BAD SLEEP WELL | WARUI YATSU HODO YOKU NEMURU

JAPAN | 1960 | B&W | DCP | 151’ | JAPANESE

An up-and-coming employee at a powerful company marries his boss's daughter, but his ultimate goal is to expose those responsible for his father's death. With the ghost of "Hamlet" lingering, the first film for Kurosawa's short-lived production company is the director's most overtly scathing indictment of the corruption of postwar industrial Japan. Steeped in the nihilism of a revenge story that will never find real vindication, and the claustrophobic atmosphere of a political noir, the film builds an inescapable cycle of violence, injustice and manipulation that begins in boardrooms only to close suffocatingly on the backs of the powerless. One of Coppola's favorite films, whose opening scene became a direct inspiration for the opening wedding sequence in “The Godfather”.

photo credit ©1960 TOHO CO., LTD.

DIRECTOR: Akira Kurosawa
SCREENWRITERS: Hideo Oguni, Eijiro Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa, Ryūzō Kikushima, Shinobu Hashimoto
DoP: Yuzuru Aizawa
MUSIC: Masaru Sato
EDITOR: Akira Kurosawa
PRINCIPAL CAST: Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kyoko Kagawa, Takashi Shimura, Tatsuya Mihashi

AKIRA KUROSAWA
Japanese filmmaker, legend of world cinema. He was recognized more than any of his Asian counterparts and had an overall and profound influence on Western film culture. 30 films, a multi-award winning body of work (Oscar, Golden Lion, Golden Palm, among others), a legendary 16-film collaboration with Toshiro Mifune, a life and work that marked globally the artistry of the 20th century.

FILMOGRAPHY (SELECTED)
1990 Dreams 
1985 Ran 
1970 Dodes’ka-den 
1965 Red Beard 
1963 High and Low 
1961 Yojimbo 
1960 The Bad Sleep Well 
1958 The Hidden Fortress 
1957 Throne of Blood 
1954 Seven Samurai 
1952 Ikiru 
1951 The Idiot 
1950 Rashomon