Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

grantss It is a high-profile wedding: the daughter of Mr Iwabuchi, a wealthy businessman, is marrying Mr Nishi, a car salesman. However, Mr Iwabuchi and other senior members of his company are suspected of corporate malfeasance and the wedding becomes a bit of a farce, with the press swarming all over it. To add to the discord, the company officials are rather publicly reminded of an ignominious event which occurred a few years ago - a senior employee committed suicide by jumping from the 7th floor of their offices. Now other senior officials are committing suicide and it looks like it is related to that death of a few years ago.Directed, and co-written, by Akira Kurosawa, and he is in fine form. Great revenge plot that is quite Shakespearean in its flow and "no good deed goes unpunished" modus operandi. Reminded me a lot of Hamlet though it is not a clear adaptation - the characters don't exactly map to characters in Hamlet, and the plot, while feeling Hamletesque, is not exactly the same. Not that Kurosawa didn't adapt Shakespeare's plays - Throne of Blood was an adaptation of MacBeth and Ran was an adaptation of King Lear.Plot and tension build well. Things start off rather innocently, with a wedding, and disjointedly as the relevance of certain characters and connections between different characters aren't always obvious. But as time goes the strands all start to coalesce and everything starts to come together.By the end the tension and intrigue are ramped up to the max, leaving you glued to the screen. The ending is poetic, but I felt that something more positive and definite was in order.Solid performances all round. Toshiro Mifune is there, of course - it wouldn't be a Kurosawa movie without him - and does a great job.

elvircorhodzic THE BAD SLEEP WELL is a crime drama about corruption, greed and responsibilities in a post-war Japanese corporation. This movie is a kind of contrast of American political noirs, which have dealt with similar themes.The news reporters comment and gossip at a wedding of a daughter of a Vice President in a famous corporation. The police interrupt the wedding when a corporate assistant officer is arrested on charges of bribery. This incident is similar to an earlier scandal after which, an Assistant Chief has committed suicide. Following the wedding, the police question a corporate assistant officer and an accountant about their bribery of government officials. After police investigation, one of them commits murder. The second was saved by a mysterious avenger...This is a tragic story in a corporate policy and corrupt society. Mr. Kurosawa, given the style and themes of the film, has introduced a serious farce. He has threw a dose of an inopportune and cynical humor in the story. An avenger is a discreetly face from behind. This concept is definitely brilliant. The director has palliated disturbing scenes with a touch of political irony. However, the pace and direction are quite slow, so the film becomes boring in the second part. It is also the biggest flaw in the film.The characterization is excellent, because Mr. Kurosawa did not kill humanity in his characters. Toshiro Mifune (Kōichi Nishi) is a clumsy groom as an avenger from the shadow. This is, regardless of duality in his character, a pale performance of Mr. Mifune. Love is a disturbing factor in his case. It is the highlight of cynicism. His greatest weakness and his salvation at the same time is Yoshiko (Kyōko Kagawa), the daughter of his greatest enemy and his wife. Antagonists, Takashi Shimura (Moriyama), Kō Nishimura (Shirai) are tragicomic. Masayuki Mori (Public Corporation Vice President Iwabuchi) is very convincing as the basis of corruption. Kamatari Fujiwara (Chief Wada) is a penitent who has risen.End of the film is quite dark. The great evil has won, but every victory has its price.

tomgillespie2002 Akira Kurosawa's lambasting of Japan's post-war corporate culture, The Bad Sleep Well, is one of many collaborations with actors Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura and one of several of his film's rooted in the work of William Shakespeare. It's been somewhat unfairly overshadowed by the brilliance of those other films, but given the near-perfection of those movies, many of which regularly make those awful, generic 'top 100 movies' lists created by various magazines and websites, it's hardly surprising. But The Bad Sleep Well is one of Kurosawa's most ingeniously paced, clinically filmed and potently pessimistic movies.Beginning with one of the most exceptional opening sequences in cinema, a crowd of journalists gather at the wedding reception of Nishi (Mifune) and Yoshiko (Kyoko Kagawa) attended by a host of corporate high-flyers. Yoshiko is the daughter of Corporation Vice President Iwabuchi (Masyuki Mori), whose company is facing scrutiny over suspected bid rigging and corruption. The press have gathered to witness the awkward toasts given by the various sweaty workers, delivered on a podium reminiscent of a witness stand. As the speeches are given, the wedding cake is wheeled in and revealed to be in the form of the corporate office building, with a single red rose protruding from the window in which Assistant Chief Furaya committed suicide from years earlier.As a couple of higher-ups are arrested, Nishi steps in to reveal his plan of revenge. He has donned the disguise of a eager hopeful looking to marry himself up the corporate ladder, but is actually Furaya's son and has uncovered the trail of greed and corruption that led to his forced suicide. And all roads lead to Iwabuchi. Loosely based on Hamlet, The Bad Sleep Well is less faithful to the source material than Kurosawa's other Shakespeare adaptations. Working for the first time with his own production company, Kurosawa instead took the chance to voice his disgust at Japan's post-war capitalist takeover, where underlings are expected to take their own lives to save their boss's skin and back-hand dealings are less suspected than expected.The title suggest something noir-ish, a genre Kurosawa is not unfamiliar with. But this has only brief shades of noir, and the title only serves as a warning of the grim pessimism smeared on thick throughout. At over two hours, the film is perhaps too long, becoming muddled at the points in which it should be tight and thrilling. But this is certainly a display of the director's formidable talent. The aforementioned opening wedding section is an expert mixture of comedy, tense drama and mystery, and was almost certainly paid homage to in The Godfather (1972). Mifune too, delivers a powerhouse performance as Nishi, stepping out of the shadows to become the beast he seeks to destroy. The climax may be too overtly bleak for some, but for the most part this is beautifully filmed, riveting stuff.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Neil Doyle Starkly melodramatic, THE BAD SLEEP WELL is a fascinating look at corruption rampant among large corporations--this time in Japan. It takes its time to get to the heart of the story--a man who seeks revenge for his father's suicidal death by assuming another identity and marrying the corrupt official's daughter solely to get inside the criminal structure and carry out his plan.Told in stark B&W in modern day Japan of the 1960s, it offers a compelling story that begins with exposition told through newsmen and photographers who have come to the wedding of TOSHIRO MIFUNE. The script is taut even though the tale takes far too long to tell. Once you start watching the story unfold, it's difficult to turn away despite the overlong running time.All the performances are excellent, if a bit over-the-top at times, and there are flaws--such as some of the important events happening off screen and recited by others in order to move the plot forward.Summing up: An intricate and intriguing study of revenge on a grand scale.