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The Bad Sleep Well (1960) Review - Dylan McCully

Written by Dylan McCully, 10/30/22

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The opening scene of The Bad Sleep Well is genius in its setup. Characters are introduced at a company wedding. We hear reporters in attendence fill in some of the backstory of the groom, played by Toshiro Mifune. The man walks between the tables and whispers something to the man sitting at the end. After some speeches that brilliantly introduce the dynamics of the company's employees, a cake is brought out in the shape of the company headquarters. One thing is different in this replica, however. A rose is on a seventh floor window, the exact spot where the groom's father killed himself. This leads to accusations and talk about the company scandals that the rest of the film uncovers.


Being a loose adaptation of Hamlet, the story plays out similarly: Toshiro Mifune plays Koichi Nishi who tries to avenge the death of his father, Furuya. The circumstances surrounding his death are as follows: a scandal which could have implicated many higher-ups in the Public Development Corporation ended suddenly as Furuya, a high ranking executive, jumped out the seventh story window. The character like Hamlet's uncle Claudius is the Public Corp.'s vice president, Iwabuchi, who was truly responsible for the death. After getting married to the disabled daughter of Iwabuchi, Nishi investigates, and the story drifts from Shakespeare to a film noir-esque drama filled with betrayal and conspiracy. Will Nishi get revenge on the evil Iwabuchi or succumb to the same fate as many others that tamper with his biddings?


Kurosawa already had two films in the noir category, Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, both really good movies. However, those were from the 40's; The Bad Sleep Well was created by a more experienced Kurosawa who knows exactly when to reveal certain story beats to heighten the suspense to the max. (The greatest example being High and Low, which I'll get to soon.) One thing that has not changed since Drunken Angel and Stray Dog is the brilliant visuals. The Bad Sleep Well uses a lot of shadows to hide it's characters in darkness, which is where their morals usually lie as well. It's easy to see The Bad Sleep Well's influence in a film like The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola considered the aforementioned opening wedding scene to be "as perfect as it gets" which he used as some of the basis for The Godfather's opening wedding scene. (Which I think Coppola pulls off even better. He manages to show us all we need to know, rather than tell, like Kurosawa does. Kurosawa fatally does this in the end of the movie also, which hinders its rating a bit.) Overall, an ensemble cast of Japan's best, an entralling story and beautiful use of shadows make for another Kurosawa classic that leaves you with one question: do you have to become evil to defeat evil? 7.5/10


Akira Kurosawa Ranking:

  1. Seven Samurai (1954) - 10/10

  2. Ikiru (1952) - 9/10

  3. Rashomon (1950) - 9/10

  4. The Hidden Fortress (1958) - 8.5/10

  5. Throne of Blood (1957) - 8/10

  6. The Bad Sleep Well - 7.5/10

  7. Stray Dog (1949) - 7.5/10

  8. I Live In Fear (1955) - 7/10

  9. Drunken Angel (1948) - 6.5/10

  10. The Lower Depths (1957) - 6/10

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