Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru (1960)

I first saw this Kurosawa movie on cable. This is not your normal Kurosawa film no ronins, samurais, bandits or courtesans. There are heroes, anti-heroes and villains. In my opinion, it is as powerful as his other well-known films - Rashomon, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Hidden Fortress, Kagemusha, Ran and the Throne of Blood.

The story is set in Post World War II Japan. A Wedding Ceremony ushers us into a story of corporate corruption, revenge and love in corporate Japan. The film stars Toshiro Mifune as the film's hero who is out to avenge and bring justice to those who have done him ill. Like all Kuroswa films it makes effective use of the musical score to highlight the scene and provide a subtle form of irony when needed.

The film also provides the viewer an insight into what was Japan like during the 1950s and the 1960s. It also showed the timeless nature of corruption. Despite the lack of feuding warlords or master less samurais, willing to take on the corrupt, the story proves that whatever time or epoch the bad do sleep well.

Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru (1960)
English title:
The Bad Sleep Well
The Rose in the Mud
The Worse You Are, the Better You Sleep
Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Writing credits:
Shinobu Hashimoto, Eijirô Hisaita, Mike Y. Inoue, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa and Hideo Oguni.
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kyôko Kagawa et al.