Synopsis
The Idiot (白痴, 1951) is Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of Dostoevsky, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Kurosawa moved the novel out of St. Petersburg and onto snowbound Hokkaidō. Kinji Kameda, a soldier who survived a wartime execution and came back gentle as a child, steps off the ferry into a tangle that is not his to fix.
Aboard the boat he meets the hot-blooded Akama, consumed by the disgraced beauty Taeko Nasu. Kameda's kindness works on people like a mirror — stand near him and your wounds show. The proud Ayako, the jealous Akama, the shamed Taeko all circle this man who simply cannot lie, and each one cuts him while bleeding themselves. Masayuki Mori plays Kameda, Toshiro Mifune plays Akama, and Setsuko Hara is Taeko, with Takashi Shimura rounding out the cast.
Kurosawa shot The Idiot right after Rashomon and called it one of his most personal films; the studio hacked his three-hour cut nearly in half, yet even mutilated it stays a hard, unsentimental study of pity that outweighs sense. Best for viewers who want slow, wintry, painfully honest cinema. Stream The Idiot (1951) online on iFILM.
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