Akira Kurosawa’s The Idiot, his only adaptation of a Fyodor Dostoevsky novel, was a cherished project on which it is claimed he expended more effort than on any other film. A darkly ambitious exploration of the depths of human emotion, it combines the talents of two of the greatest Japanese actors of their generation — Toshiro Mifune and Setsuko Hara. The Idiot is perhaps the most contemplative of all Kurosawa’s works, a tone which is heightened by the unusual, trance-like performances. Eureka Video




Kurosawa’s electrifying dramatisation uproots the novel’s Russian Summer setting to a memorable, snowbound Hokkaido — the northern-most island of Japan, closest to Russia in climate and custom. War criminal Kameda (Masayuki Mori), reprieved from a death sentence, is fresh out of the asylum, mentally fragile, and prone to epileptic fits. In turn, his emotional involvement with two women (Setsuko Hara and Yoshiko Kuga) and his new, increasingly volatile friend Akama (Toshiro Mifune) leads further into madness and gross tragedy. Eureka Video




Filmed between Rashomon and Ikiru, Kurosawa poured himself into faithfully capturing the essence of his favourite author’s work — only to see it butchered by the studio. Never at all released in its original 266-minute form, the original Kurosawa edit was only ever shown once at the Japanese premiere and then re-edited by the studio prior to the official Japanese release the following week. In spite of Kurosawa’s own efforts to locate the original version in the studio’s vaults forty years later, his cut is now sadly considered lost. Eureka Video




“Of all my films, people wrote to me most about this one… …I had wanted to make The Idiot long before Rashomon. Since I was little I’ve liked Russian literature, but I find that I like Dostoevsky the best and had long thought that this book would make a wonderful film. He is still my favourite author, and he is the one — I still think — who writes most honestly about human existence.” – Akira Kurosawa Eureka Video




Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Taeko comes to love Kameda, but is loved in turn by Akama. When Akama realizes that he will never have Taeko, his thoughts turn to murder, and great tragedy ensues. (http://imdb.com/name/nm0955504/)








My Blog

A brief listing of the movies published here on Avax-pages
from #1 to #321 pls visit: 321 Satyajit Ray-Shatranj Ke Khilari ('The Chess Players') (1977)

322 Jean Renoir - Les Bas-fonds (1936)

323 Sergei Bondarchuk-Voyna i mir (1968)

324 Lindsay Anderson-O Dreamland (1953)

325 Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson - Momma Don't Allow (1955)

326 Lorenza Mazzetti-Together (1956)

327 Lindsay Anderson-Wakefield Express (1952)

328 Claude Goretta, Alain Tanner - Nice Time (1957)

329 Lindsay Anderson-Every Day Except Christmas (1957)

330 Michael Grigsby-Enginemen (1959)

331 Karel Reisz-We Are the Lambeth Boys (1959)

332 Christophe Dupin-Small is Beautiful (2006)

333 Jia Zhang-Ke - Xiao Wu ('Pickpocket') (1997)

334 Jia Zhang-Ke - Ren xiao yao ('Unknown Pleasures') (2002)

335 Jia Zhang-Ke - Sanxia haoren ('Still Life') (2006)

336 Jia Zhang-Ke - Dong (2006)

337 Masaki Kobayashi-Seppuku ('Harakiri') (1962)

338 Masaki Kobayashi-Kaidan (1964)

339 Masaki Kobayashi-Jôi-uchi, Hairyô tsuma shimatsu ('Samurai Rebellion') (1967)

340 Akira Kurosawa-Hakuchi ('The Idiot') (1951)