Red Beard

The final collaboration between Akiro Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, 'Red Beard' is set in a rural hospital at the end of the Tokugawa period in the 1860s - a time when Japan was being opened to western influences. Domineering Dr Niide (Mifune), known as 'Red Beard', is responsible for training new doctors, among them the lazy and socially ambitious Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama). However, through a series of lessons in human sufferings, Yasumoto is eventually transformed into a caring doctor.