Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru

I just watched "The Bad Sleep Well," and finished reading the other viewers comments. So I will comment on both. "Seven Samurai" is perhaps my favorite film of all time, and I really like Kurasawa's work. Other than the brief plot summary, I didn't really know what to expect from "The Bad Sleep Well." The beginning can be somewhat confusing, as the reporters throw out lots of Japanese names and the viewer must struggle to understand what's going on and who is who. But as the film progressed, I found myself drawn in and completely absorbed by it. Don't worry if you don't get it at first, all will become clear. I found this to be an excellent film, and I would recommend it to any Kurasawa film. Sure, it's not action-packed like his samurai films. And yes, it is somewhat slow in pace. But I must say that I didn't really mind that. I found it quite engrossing. There are enough plot twists and turns to keep the viewer interested. I din't think that Toshiro Mifune did a bad job either, as some other viewers thought. He's not wild and crazy like in "Seven Samurai" or "Rashomon" but I didn't think he was badly cast. Sadly, I am not intimately familiar with "Hamlet," so I can't comment too much on the similarities. It seems to be the general opinion that this "The Bad Sleep Well" is loosely based on Hamlet, but I also agree that this won't detract from your enjoyment of the film in any way, and that knowing "Hamlet" doesn't mean that you will know what happens in this film. I agree with those who say that this is another underrated Kurarsawa masterpiece, and well worth seeing. Give it a chance!

The Bad Sleep Well is one of the best revenge movies of all time. It stars the great Toshiro Mifune as a man seeking revenge against the people who forced his father into committing suicide. Unlike many revenge movies, The Bad Sleep Well doesn't glamorize its subject. Instead it shows how in trying to get retribution for a man who is now dead, Mifune ends up injuring himself and other people he loves who are still alive. There are a lot of beautiful and haunting images, like when we see a desperate man struggling to climb a volcano so he can throw himself in, or a number of scenes that are shot at the bombed out wreckage of an old WWII munitions plant. The bleak landscape mirrors the damaged lives of the movie's characters. Powerful and haunting, this is a movie that will follow you for days.

At the start of this film I didn't know what to expect. I thought it might be a mediocre Kurosawa film. By the end of the film I realized it was one of his best. This film about familial discord and corporate manipulation is breathtaking. Its filled with irony, double crosses, cynicism, manipulation and revenge. In short, its endlessly interesting and captivating. Definitly a must see.

The Bad Sleep Well is a great film, with excellent acting from all the actors, especially my favorite Japanese actor, Takashi Shimura as Moriyama. Kurosawa shows in this film that no one can or will ever top his skill at doing tableau shots. The wedding scene in the beginning of the film, where the reporters are standing just outside the doors of the reception hall, commenting on the goings on within, is fantastic. The ending seems very abrupt, almost as if they ran out of time while making the film, keeping this one out of the same league as other Kurosawa classics (7 Samurai, Stray Dog, Yojinbo).

I am watching Kurosawa's full collection and the more I watch, the more I love the art of "The Emperor". And unlike many Kurosawa's fans, my preferred films are those that talk about the time Kurosawa lived, not about the samurai ages. Again, Kurosawa uses the literature classics (for this film, Shakespeare's "Hamlet") as a source for his stories, proving that the subjects they talked about are still modern. Anyway, the genius of Kurosawa is quite big to make their film be not just a cinema remake of those texts, but an original, exciting plot. And again, Kurosawa gives us a film with a clear and worrying social message, a denounce to a serious problem (company and state corruption that even today still darkens the image of a "100% legal" Japan). A film to enjoy and film to learn about Japanese society and life in a general way.