The Bad Sleep Well (Warui Yatsu Hodo Yoku Nemuru)

The excellent Toshiro Mifune in The Bad Sleep Well

Francis Ford Coppola once said that the first half an hour of this Kurosawa gangster film was about as perfect as film-making gets. Was he right? And what about the rest?
In actual fact, I found the first half an hour a little hard to follow as the characters were established and the mystery set in motion. It is helped, however, by that typical Kurosawa trait (over which he has has such vast influence on Hollywood) narrative and focalisation. The use of the press pack as early narrators (they fill us in on a crooked company, which is celebrating the marriage of the boss's daughter) is very effective and falls by the wayside a little too abruptly.
As I've said, this is classic noir territory, the tale of a crooked company responsible for a number of sinister cover-ups stalked from the inside by the mysterious, avenging (?)angel(?) Nishi (Toshiro Mifune), who rises through the ranks by virtue of his marriage to Keiko, the boss's daughter.


As I'm sure you're sick of me repeating, great film-making means the film stays with you long after the credits role and the film demands questions of you. Kurosawa, in my view, consistently does this on a level few other film-makers can manage (Terrence Malick is one who can) - witness the celebrated final scene of The Seven Samurai and the entire of Ikiru and Drunken Angel - and the trait is in evidence here. Who's "bad" and why? Kurosawa demands us to make up our own minds as to what we make of Nishi and his motives. He's helped by Tosiro Mifune, who delivers a "list-busting" (patent pending) performance and by the excellent but underused Kyoko Kagawa. Takashi Shimura is also very effective in a surprising role as a villain and Kamatari Fujiwara does a decent impression of Shimura's Watanabe (in Ikiru) as assistant Wada who helps Nishi on his quest. In short, good performances all round.

Whilst I don't feel this is Kurosawa at his very best (parts do drag and, perhaps, the love story - one of the film's vital components - is not effective as it might be, though that's purely down to screen time), it is still a very good film and comes recommended. It's quite long though, so prepare yourself for a bit of a sit. I doubt non-Kurosawa fans (Adam) will find much to change their minds here, although it should also appeal to straight fans of noir, as this is effective, suspenseful, film-making even if it doesn't hit the heights of other films of the genre, and, indeed, of other films of the director.

B+