Akira Kurosawa

The Idiot

The Idiot

After finishing what would become his international phenomenon Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa immediately turned to one of the most daring, and problem-plagued, productions of his career. The Idiot, an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's nineteenth-century masterpiece about a wayward, pure soul's reintegration into society—updated by Kurosawa to capture Japan’s postwar aimlessness—was a victim of studio interference and, finally, public indifference. Today, this "folly" looks ever more fascinating, a stylish, otherworldly evocation of one man’s wintry mindscape.

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Film Info

  • Japan
  • 1951
  • 166 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • Japanese

Available In

Collector's Set

Eclipse Series 7: Postwar Kurosawa

Eclipse 7: Postwar Kurosawa

DVD Box Set

5 Discs

$55.96

Collector's Set

AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa

AK 100: 25 Films by Kurosawa

DVD Box Set

25 Discs

$319.00

Out Of Print
The Idiot
Cast
Setsuko Hara
Taeko Nasu
Masayuki Mori
Kinji Kameda
Toshiro Mifune
Denkichi Akama
Yoshiko Kuga
Ayako Uno
Takashi Shimura
Ono, the father
Chieko Higashiyama
Satoki Ono
Eijiro Yanagi
Tohata
Credits
Director
Akira Kurosawa
Producer
Takashi Koide
Based on the novel by
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Screenplay
Eijiro Hisaita
Screenplay
Akira Kurosawa
Cinematography
Toshio Ubukata
Editing
T. Saito
Art director
So Matsuyama
Music
Fumio Hayasaka

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Akira Kurosawa

Writer, Director

Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa

Arguably the most celebrated Japanese filmmaker of all time, Akira Kurosawa had a career that spanned from the Second World War to the early nineties and that stands as a monument of artistic, entertainment, and personal achievement. His best-known films remain his samurai epics Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, but his intimate dramas, such as Ikiru and High and Low, are just as searing. The first serious phase of Kurosawa’s career came during the postwar era, with Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, gritty dramas about people on the margins of society that featured the first notable appearances by Toshiro Mifune, the director’s longtime leading man. Kurosawa would subsequently gain international fame with Rashomon, a breakthrough in nonlinear narrative and sumptuous visuals. Following a personal breakdown in the late sixties, Kurosawa rebounded by expanding his dark brand of humanism into new stylistic territory, with films such as Kagemusha and Ran, visionary, color, epic ruminations on modern man and nature.

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