This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Jaina K’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
I end my 2019 by watching the end of Akira Kurosawa's long and illustrious partnership with Toshiro Mifune. I don't know why, but I had somehow gotten it into my head that this one was another Shakespearean-style adaptation, so I was pleasantly surprised that, while it is an adaptation, it fits right in to the Kurosawa mold of a character exploration with a side dose of sick people!
All said, I really enjoyed this one. Mifune got quite a bit to do, playing a nicer-Doctor-House-in-Japan, and he even gets an action scene that really feels like it was a near fourth wall break just to showcase Mifune beating up guys. I also really want to call out the set design and the Kurosawa hallmark environmental effects. The little clinic had a fantastic sense of presence and space; its a really rich setting with character all its own, not just a location for story...but unlike something like The Lower Depths, the story is allowed to range beyond its walls. And then there's stuff like the rain and wind and snow and earthquakes...this is a story set in the world. Despite the medical setting, there's no sterility here. Things are dirty and occasionally hazardous.
The character journey of Dr. Yasumoto is also really fun to watch. Is it earth shattering or novel? No, not really. Its a fairly bog standard "selfish man learns the error of his ways" type journey...but this one digs into the guts of what that kind of character transformation would require someone to experience. The three hour runtime is put to good use, Yasumoto's turn doesn't feel rushed or unearned at all by the end of things.
All around a good film, and its bittersweet to know I don't have any more Kurosawa-Mifune power features to look forward to.