Synopsis
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.
Cast
| Taeko Nasu | Setsuko Hara |
| Kinji Kameda | Masayuki Mori |
| Denkichi Akama | Toshiro Mifune |
| Ayako Uno | Yoshiko Kuga |
| Ono, the father | Takashi Shimura |
| Satoki Ono | Chieko Higashiyama |
| Tohata | Eijiro Yanagi |
Credits
| Director | Akira Kurosawa |
| Producer | Takashi Koide |
| Based on the novel by | Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
| Screenplay | Eijirô Hisaita and Akira Kurosawa |
| Cinematography | Toshio Ubukata |
| Editing | T. Saito |
| Art director | So Matsuyama |
| Music | Fumio Hayasaka |
From the Current
Eclipse Series 7:
Postwar Kurosawa
by
Jan 14, 2008
As Japan was coming out of World War II, Akira Kurosawa was coming into his own as a filmmaker. And this was hardly a coincidence: though he had made a name for himself as a promising popular craftsman at Toho Studios during the war, Kurosawa later said he didn’t feel he could express himself . . .
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The Idiot: two questions
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