Looking at the output of famed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa throughout the 1960s is bittersweet, because he was extremely prolific for the first half of the decade or so, releasing one great film after another (most about a year apart), but then didn’t put anything out between 1966 and 1969. He had a falling out with one of his closest collaborators, the also legendary actor Toshirō Mifune, and then had a somewhat tumultuous directorial career from 1970 onward (1985’s Ran was an impressive comeback of sorts, though, and one of his very best films). But that’s getting a bit ahead of things. For now, it’s best to focus on the good stuff that Kurosawa did manage to make during the 1960s.
These five movies are all of such a high quality that it’s honestly a little difficult to rank them all. Something has to be last when a ranking happens, though; it’s just the unfortunate nature of undertaking such an ordeal. By no means are the “worst” Kurosawa films of the 1960s bad, because they all have something to offer. Indeed, there are few Akira Kurosawa films released in any decade that could be called bad, but the first half of the 1960s was a particularly strong and prolific period for the filmmaker. The following ranking should hopefully demonstrate that, with his works from the 1960s outlined below, starting with the very good and ending with the very best.
5 'The Bad Sleep Well' (1960)
Starring: Toshirō Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kamatari Fujiwara
A film that takes a little influence from Hamlet, broadly reimagining its story of revenge in a corporate/mid-20th century setting, The Bad Sleep Well is a more than solid crime/drama/thriller film that’s only in last place here because the other Akira Kurosawa films from the 1960s are so strong. This one got the 1960s off to a good start for the director though, even if it was all up from here, as far as this particular decade was concerned. The plan for vengeance here unfolds gradually, making The Bad Sleep Well something of a slow burn, too.
But it’s not going to make you Sleep, even if you think you have a bit of a Bad attention span. It’s a confident film that’s not afraid to take its time, but things all pay off in the end, and the quality of the acting also impresses throughout. There might not be too many people who label The Bad Sleep Well as their personal favorite Kurosawa flick, but it is nonetheless a good one, and could well qualify as one of his more underrated and overlooked, too.
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The Bad Sleep Well
Crime
Drama Thriller- Release Date
- January 22, 1963
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
- Runtime
- 150 Minutes
4 'Red Beard' (1965)
Starring: Toshirō Mifune, Yūzō Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki
Red Beard is almost an epic, in the sense that it’s long enough to qualify, but it’s also intimate and quite low-key in a way you don’t often see in most traditional epics. It takes place during the early to mid-1800s, and mostly concerns the initially tense working relationship between a young medical student in training and the skilled but somewhat closed-off doctor who mentors him. Toshirō Mifune plays that older doctor in what ended up being his final collaboration with Kurosawa, and he’s about as awesome and monumental (as far as screen presence goes) as you’d expect.
Given it runs for three hours and isn’t technically as exciting as something like the similarly lengthy Seven Samurai, Red Beard can’t be called as riveting, but neither is it trying to deliver that kind of story or feel. It’s a drama that centers on characters, shedding light on how doctoring worked long ago in Japan, and exploring various social issues through the ways the two lead characters interact with various patients and other medical staff. It’s a challenging but ultimately impressive film, and certainly worth watching for anyone who’s more familiar with the action or samurai-focused movies of Kurosawa and feels interested in branching out; in seeing how the great filmmaker could handle a slightly more grounded — or “everyday” — story.
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Red Beard
Anthology
Drama- Release Date
- April 3, 1965
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
3 'Sanjuro' (1962)
Starring: Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiju Kobayashi
There were two Akira Kurosawa samurai movies released in the 1960s, forming a kind of duology, with Toshirō Mifune playing the lead role in both. Sanjuro was the second of the two, and is perhaps the slightly inferior film of the pair, but it’s still fantastic. It functions as a strangely comedic samurai film, though it’s certainly not devoid of action or drama, following Mifune’s character as he helps out a group of young samurai who want to take down some corrupt individuals associated with their clan.
Also, if you like samurai movies that get kind of wild with their violence (particularly high-pressure blood spray), you have Sanjuro to thank, because the finale saw an unintended mistake lead to a very memorable — and bloody — death. Overall, this film can seem a little uneven compared to the more controlled and carefully made Akira Kurosawa films, but that somewhat reckless abandon is also entertaining in its own way. Sanjuro jumps around a fair bit tonally and genre-wise, but that keeps it fun, fresh, and rather distinct within Kurosawa’s body of work. He does have other great samurai-related movies for sure, but few that feel like this one.
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Sanjuro
Not Rated
Action DramaComedy
- Release Date
- January 1, 1962
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
2 'Yojimbo' (1961)
Starring: Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yōko Tsukasa
Preceding Sanjuro by a year, and being the slightly better samurai movie starring Toshirō Mifune as a lone warrior taking on corruption, Yojimbo has a dynamite premise. Mifune’s character wanders into a small town that’s been torn apart by a dramatic gang war. He then sets about taking them down using brains over brawn, allying himself falsely with both sides to exploit every participant in the conflict, manipulating them into taking each other out before picking off any stragglers himself.
It’s largely the Toshirō Mifune show, as you might expect, but there are some other Kurosawa collaborators that make impressions here, too, including Tatsuya Nakadai and Takashi Shimura (the former’s best-known collaboration with Kurosawa being Ran, and the latter’s best work with the director probably being either Ikiru or Seven Samurai). There’s not a lot by way of fight sequences here, like you might expect from a more traditional or adventure-focused samurai flick, but it offers more than enough for anyone after something tense, well-paced, and occasionally funny. Yojimbo is expertly balanced and feels like one of Kurosawa’s most timeless movies. There’s still something kind of irresistible about it all these decades later.
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Yojimbo
Not Rated
Action Thriller Drama- Release Date
- April 25, 1961
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
1 'High and Low' (1963)
Starring: Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa
There’s an argument to be made that High and Low deserves to be ranked among the greatest thrillers of all time, and it’s also probably the best Akira Kurosawa film that doesn’t have a historical setting. It feels like the movie The Bad Sleep Well might well have been a warm-up for, exploring greed, justice, corruption, and crime in a manner that still feels tense, exciting, and relevant. Principally, it’s about an instance of attempted blackmail going very wrong, but it’s also about so much more than just the central premise might suggest.
Undoubtedly, High and Low is one of the best-directed crime/drama/thriller movies of all time, and it’s similarly one of the best-acted films that can be defined in such a way. It’s hyped up a great deal whenever it comes time to talk about the best Kurosawa films the director ever made, but after watching it, it’s not hard to see why. This is top-tier stuff that every film fan should check out at least once, even if they’re not ordinarily huge fans of older movies or Japanese cinema.
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High And Low
Crime
DramaMystery
- Release Date
- March 1, 1963
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
RENT
BUY
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