A TOHO-KUROSAWA PRODUCTION
RED BEARD
Executive Producers TOMOYUKI TANAKA, RYUZO KIKUSHIMA
Original Story by SHUGORO YAMAMOTO
Photography by ASAICHI NAKAI and TAKAO SAITO
Starring:
TOSHIRO MIFUNE
YUZO KAYAMA TSUTOMU YAMAZAKI
REIKO DAN, MIYUKI KUWANO, KYOKO KAGAWA
Directed by AKIRA KUROSAWA
KOSHIKAWA CLINIC
I'm Noboru Yasumoto.
Yasumoto?
I know. I'll take him.
I'm Genzo Tsugawa.
I've been waiting for you.
With you here, I can leave.
You're taking my place.
I was just told to call.
You were in Nagasaki? For how long?
Just over three years.
It's terrible here.
You'll have to stay and see for yourself.
The patients are slum people, full of fleas and lice.
They even smell bad.
We don't get much money.
And Red Beard is after us night and day.
Red Beard?
The head doctor. His beard is sort of reddish.
It's really terrible here.
Being here makes you wonder why you wanted to be a doctor.
It smells like rotten fruit.
It's the smell of the poor.
The waiting room for outpatients.
They're treated for free in the afternoons.
I don't know.
All of them would be better off dead.
This way.
The pharmacy.
The clinic.
The men's wards.
Over there, the women's wards.
Is there no tatami?
No. Our rooms are all the same.
Same as a prison.
Yes, even our clothes are like this.
It's all right for us men.
But even poor women are women.
They should wear something brighter.
I'd hate to die in this.
These clothes...
They show dirt.
They're easy to wash.
So, you see, we can always stay clean.
You smelled when you came here,
but it's not so bad now.
You owe it all to your clothes.
See?
You shouldn't talk.
Red Beard said so, didn't he?
If you don't mind him, you'll spit up blood again.
We're better off dead.
Too poor to even buy medicine!
But when I die, I'd like to die on tatami!
Even the poorest have tatami.
It's bad for us.
You see,
tatami catches all the dirt and moisture.
That's why...
Sahachi,
if you don't keep quiet,
you'll really die.
Are these things the rule here?
Red Beard's rules.
He's the dictator here.
A good doctor, dedicated to his work.
Many daimyo and rich people trust him.
But he's stubborn, inconsiderate, radical,
and proud.
Beyond here are our quarters.
The south side gets the sun. That's for the patients.
The damp north side is for us.
The patients' service room.
The kitchen.
We eat here. It's called the dining room.
We must not eat or drink in our rooms.
They're all Red Beard's rules.
We are to have no heat except in the wards.
Red Beard says the cold here is good for us.
And there's not enough money to buy coal except for the wards.
Red Beard's room.
I brought Dr. Yasumoto!
Come in.
I'm Noboru Yasumoto.
Red Beard.
My real name's hard to pronounce...
Kyojo Niide.
You'll start as an intern today.
But I...
Wait. Father only said to call on you.
You'll stay here.
Bring me all the notes and drawings you made at Nagasaki.
They are at home.
I'll go back and...
No, your things will be here soon.
That's all. Show him his room.
I'm Handayu Mori.
It's pretty difficult here.
But if you want, you can learn a lot.
Useful in the future.
Let's work together.
I won't be cooped up here!
I studied to serve the shogunate!
I was to be the shogun's doctor!
And it's...
Please listen!
My father's a doctor. Dr. Amano's his friend.
He's the shogun's personal doctor?
Yes, he helped me to go study in Nagasaki.
He said he'd recommend me.
Then why did this happen?
I don't know. I just don't understand.
It's...
A mix-up somewhere.
Even with Dr. Amano's backing, this still happened,
so you'd better make the best of it.
We knew you were coming two weeks ago.
It seems he likes you.
He's unfriendly to people he likes.
Not me. He never finds fault with me.
He ignores me completely.
I won't do as he says.
It's some sort of trick.
I'm leaving, no matter what Red Beard says.
We are under the jurisdiction of the magistrate's office here.
And it has appointed you officially.
You can't hide or run away.
Thanks to you, I can go.
I'll take you to your room.
I mean, we share it until I leave.
Excuse me.
He's quite a genius, but we don't get along well.
This is our room.
Your things are here already.
Where are you going?
Running away will make trouble!
She's worse again and I'm out of medicine!
Please make me some.
Only Red Beard does that. He's in his room.
Dr. Yasumoto!
KOSHI KAWA CLI NIC HERB GARDEN
No one's allowed in here.
Only Red Beard.
Osugi's different.
She's a nurse.
Is that a ward too?
The girl's father built it himself.
She's a special patient.
The whole house is a prison.
Osugi has the key and no one gets in.
The girl isn't let out either.
She's called "the mantis."
It's a good nickname.
The female eats the male after they mate.
She'd do the same thing.
No one knows who she is,
but it seems she's the daughter of a merchant.
She killed three clerks there.
She'd seduce them first.
When they'd get excited over her,
she'd stab them with a hairpin.
Had they ever done anything to her?
Red Beard says she was just born that way.
An hysterical condition rather than insanity.
It's really a pity.
She's very beautiful.
Why don't you eat, Yasumoto?
I don't want to!
Does it mean you're not hungry or that the food doesn't suit you?
It means this place doesn't suit me.
Even bad food tastes good if you chew it well.
Same with our work here, if you try hard.
I hear your things are here. Why don't you bring me your notes?
I refuse.
Refuse? Why?
I studied Dutch medicine, developing my own diagnoses and cures.
They are mine and not for others!
Medical knowledge belongs to everyone.
Doctors get rich just by curing cataracts.
We don't gossip here.
Bring me your notes and change into your uniform.
Go and get me some sake!
We don't drink sake here.
That's why I'll drink!
I'll break every rule!
No uniform.
I'll be such a nuisance, he'll ask me to leave.
Get me some sake!
You're a nuisance.
Don't you understand?
It's you who won't understand.
No one's allowed here, so I came.
Hoping to get Dr. Niide mad so he'll dismiss you?
But...
You can't fool him by acting like a child.
And is that the only reason you came here?
What's that?
Interested in my mistress?
I won't deny it.
As a doctor, I'd like to treat an unusual patient.
Unlike Mori, I specialized in medicine.
I know more about curing than Red Beard.
Why not help the other patients then?
Any doctor can help them.
You're just talking.
I don't believe it.
Don't believe what?
Not Dr. Niide, but the others are interested in her.
Dr. Tsugawa...
Tsugawa? What'd he do?
He came to see her while I was out,
and almost...
Luckily, there were bars between them.
I'm not like him.
I wonder.
It's hard to believe men.
I don't believe women.
I've suffered enough for believing one.
Where were you?
A visitor.
Masae, she said.
Chigusa's sister, she said to tell you.
Chigusa? I won't see her. Tell her I'm out.
Sahachi, go to bed!
Yes, right away.
We've told him too.
He works, then buys eggs and fish for the patients.
Gives away his own medicine... gruel too.
And he's very sick himself. He's a bother.
I'm sorry.
I'll be through very soon.
They're all too much!
What are you doing?
Going to keep it up?
No one's going to waste any sympathy on your sulking.
Least of all Dr. Niide. He won't change.
Think carefully. You yourself stand to lose the most.
Tsugawa's gone. Dr. Niide's very busy and short of help.
It's very late, yet he's still out seeing patients.
But you...
He's been saying for a long time he wants good doctors.
Especially here at the clinic. Good, dedicated doctors.
Tsugawa was no good.
That's why he expected a lot of you.
That's not what he expected of me.
I know.
What is it then?
He called me here to get my notes and drawings.
You see? He's ignored me after getting them.
I do nothing. He doesn't say anything.
Doctor!
What is it?
It's my mistress! My mistress!
What about her?
She's run away!
I left the key in the lock. I was in the kitchen.
Please help me.
I'm not insane at all.
Please listen to me.
You're the new doctor, aren't you?
Osugi told me.
Doctors in uniforms are no good.
They won't listen to me.
But you will, won't you?
I admit to killing the clerks.
But there was a reason for it.
L...
When I was a child,
a man did something very bad to me.
But... a woman can't talk about it.
I'm a doctor. Don't be shy.
When I was nine years old,
an old clerk did something naughty.
If I told anybody about it,
he said he'd kill me.
He was dismissed soon after that
for spending store money.
But he made me do things many times before that.
Each time he threatened to kill me
if I told anyone.
Then...
No, I can't go on!
Tell me. Tell me everything.
When I was 11,
it happened again.
In a warehouse. With a shop assistant.
He also said he'd kill me if I told anyone.
He told me to come the next day.
I did as he said.
I thought he'd kill me if I didn't.
I'll be killed.
I'll be killed!
Calm yourself.
I'm afraid!
Be calm!
I'll be killed!
I'm afraid!
Be quiet!
Please help me. Please!
Calm yourself and tell me everything.
When I was 17,
a clerk came into my bedroom.
I knew I'd be killed. He'd kill me this time for sure.
I forgot myself. With this...
The clerk lay down beside me.
He held me this way.
He talked like this to me.
Then I did this.
I'd kill him instead.
I stabbed him with this. Right here.
Don't get up. Lie quietly.
She missed the artery, just grazed your neck.
You'll be well in a day.
But if I'd come in any later, you'd be dead.
Look, she lit into me too.
She bit me five times here.
She was born that way.
You heard about her childhood too?
But many other girls have had experiences like that.
It's nothing. Lie still.
You were drunk.
And men have a weakness for pretty girls.
That's all.
Don't be ashamed, but let it be a lesson to you.
Please go to North Ward No. 1.
An order?
Dr. Niide wants you. You won't?
Why not wear your uniform? You'll get dirty.
You examine him.
He's unconscious. He's dying.
His case history. Give me a diagnosis.
- Stomach cancer. - No.
There's a case like his in your notes.
It's a kind of cancer.
It's in the liver.
The cancer doesn't spread fast.
Pain only comes when it's grown large enough.
So it's too late then.
It's rather rare. Remember it.
There's no cure for it?
No, and this disease isn't the only one.
There are no cures, really.
Medical science doesn't know everything.
We know the symptoms and how things go.
If the patient has a chance, we try to help.
But that's about all.
We can only fight poverty and ignorance.
And cover up what we don't know.
Poverty's a political problem, they say.
But what has politics ever done for the poor?
Has a law been passed to get rid of poverty and ignorance?
But this place! Government funds...
Better this than nothing.
The problem is deeper than that.
If it weren't for poverty, half of these people wouldn't be sick.
I know.
There is always some story of great misfortune behind illness.
This Rokusuke
was a gold-lacquer craftsman of some note, it seems.
Yet he was brought in from a cheap inn,
has no visitors,
won't talk.
He won't answer questions. Hasn't said a single word.
He hasn't even said it hurts.
His heart probably hurts him even more.
A girl's been hurt, Doctor!
At a building site. She's too much for me.
Nothing's so solemn as a man's last moments.
Watch him closely.
Room No. 3. I'll look after him.
You're needed while they sew her up.
Hold her legs down.
She's been drugged but may struggle.
Don't get knocked over.
Needle!
Don't look away! Watch while I suture.
Don't let her move. Spread her legs out more!
Her intestines are coming out! Shove them in!
I fainted at my first operation too.
You'll get used to it. You won't mind it then.
No, I can't even watch a man dying.
Calling it solemn.
To me, it's horrible.
How's Rokusuke?
He died. Without saying a word.
Did you think his death solemn?
The pain and loneliness of death frighten me.
But Dr. Niide looks at it differently.
He looks into their hearts as well as their bodies.
For example, he saw some great misfortune behind his silence.
That's probably why he said solemn.
I want to be like him someday.
There's just too much to do today.
First an operation, and then Sahachi.
He worked again after all my warnings and got worse.
He's in North Room No. 3, but he may not recover this time.
I'll go.
Sahachi, don't die.
Don't give up, Sahachi.
You're saying that so that he'll work more for you again?
No, I'm not.
Sahachi's like a saint,
that's why.
Yes, when the world's full of no-good people,
I can't stand having him leave us.
I see.
But you should be in bed too.
Off with you.
I'll look after him. You go too.
Being quiet is best for him.
Dr. Mori, I'm sorry I didn't do as you said.
Dr. Mori's busy with the outpatients.
Oh, you're the new doctor, aren't you?
Why don't you wear your uniform, Doctor?
It helps people.
Why?
Seeing it,
we know it's a clinic doctor.
Poor people who can't see a physician
can get help from him.
Doctor,
it seems to be the end for me.
If it is,
there's one favor I'd like to ask.
- Where is Red Beard? - In his room.
Rokusuke's daughter's here.
Would you believe it? When he's just died?
She's here with her three children. She was hoping she could rely on him.
Eat it. Go ahead. You needn't worry.
Hard to eat with me here? I'll go.
Sahachi said to ask you.
He wants to go home before he dies.
It was
a very cold day.
I still remember
how my chilblains hurt.
I was playing by the doorway when a man came to where I was.
He said he was my father. He wanted me to go home with him.
He was pale,
but he tried to smile
and put a hand on my shoulder.
He said, "Okuni, let's go home.
You're my precious only daughter.
You're my precious only daughter."
But I was only a child then.
I was frightened and I pushed him away and ran.
I was living with Mother
and a young man she called a relative.
I didn't know anything.
He was father's assistant. They'd been bad together then ran away.
I found that out after he'd married me.
Your mother's lover?
She was over 40.
It was probably the only way she could hold him.
But I saw them with my own eyes!
Never mind the rest.
What happened to your mother?
She died.
She left when she was found out.
She became a maid at a teahouse.
It seems they still saw each other.
She gave him money, so he didn't work.
Just before she died, she sent for my husband
but didn't want to see me.
She made me marry him.
And she hated me.
I don't even know where her grave is.
I didn't build a family altar either.
I'm just as bad!
I knew what he was,
yet I had three children by him!
Did you see your father after that?
After she died,
he came to see me in secret again.
He seemed older. I hardly recognized him.
His hair was all white.
He trembled when he spoke:
"Come with me and bring the three children."
But I was purposely rude and sent him away.
I told him to leave us alone.
How could I go with him?
And bring the children of the man
who had taken both his wife and his daughter?
Was he in pain when he died?
No, he died peacefully.
He had to.
He had to!
If he hadn't,
life would have been too cruel!
But that man!
When she died and the money stopped coming, he started in on the neighbors!
He'd get drunk and become abusive!
Said to get money from Father because
I was his only child.
"What kind of a man is this not to feed his own grandchildren?"
I put up with everything for the children's sake.
But there's a limit to my patience.
Telling me to get money from the man he'd hurt.
It's one thing he shouldn't have said.
That's why l...
I understand.
So you tried to stab him?
I meant to take the children to Father and then give myself up.
I went to the inn where Father said to come if I needed him.
I was told he was sick and came here long ago.
I came here, but...
What will I do?
Don't worry. Cutting someone up a little is not too serious.
No, an accident!
He was drunk... he had this knife.
You stabbed him while trying to get it.
That's what happened!
It often happens.
Luckily, I know Magistrate Shimada.
I know some things about him.
I'll go with you. Go and confess.
My children... what will become of them?
The children.
That's right. We'll ask Goheiji.
He's in charge of houses near here. Has a fine wife too.
Take the children and Sahachi there.
After the magistrate's office, I'll come too.
Sahachi!
Onaka... Onaka, why have you come?
You needn't have come. I'll be with you soon.
I won't make you wait long.
The children have run away!
What?
We were asked to keep them!
Be more careful! I'm all wet because of you!
There's a vacant house near here?
Will you rent it to them?
I'll be responsible.
How's Sahachi?