Red Beard is a 1965 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It stars Toshiro Mifune as Dr. Kyojio Niide, or "Red Beard," a gruff and highly skilled doctor who runs a clinic in a poor and neglected area of 19th-century Japan. When Dr. Noboru Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama), a arrogant young doctor fresh out of medical school, is assigned to work under Red Beard as part of his compulsory social service, he is initially deeply unhappy with his placement.
Yasumoto spends much of the first half of the movie rebelling against Red Beard's strict rules and expectations for his behavior, often refusing to see patients or even showing up for work altogether. However, over time, Red Beard begins to chip away at Yasumoto's arrogance and train him to be a compassionate and skilled doctor.
One of the movie's most striking sequences is a lengthy montage in which Yasumoto cares for a group of prostitutes who are brought to the clinic after contracting syphilis. The scene is a powerful illustration of the way in which medical care can be deeply connected to social justice, with Red Beard and Yasumoto working tirelessly to help these women recover and rebuild their lives.
Throughout the movie, Kurosawa uses his trademark visual style to bring the world of Red Beard's clinic to life. The cramped and cluttered spaces of the clinic are filled with detail and texture, creating a sense of reality that makes the emotional journeys of the characters all the more impactful.
At its core, Red Beard is a movie about empathy and the transformative power of learning to see other people's struggles and pain. As Yasumoto begins to truly understand the experiences of the impoverished patients who come through the clinic, he begins to shed his own self-centeredness and become a better doctor and person.
