Idiot, The (1951)

Shochiku
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Masayuki Mori, Toshiro Mifune, Setsuko Hara, Yoshiko Kuga

A long-desired passion project by the renowned Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, 1951’s The Idiot would be a marathon of a feature that also resulted as the greatest personal disappoint his long, storied career. An adaptation of the Fydor Dostoevsky’s novel, the film met disapproval from the studio over its length lengthy running time, leading to significant edits and resulting in a erratic story and a rare blunder in Kurosawa’s resumé. Despite its shortcoming, the feature is favored by some for the clear dedication by its creator, as well as being considered one of the most ambitious works by the famed director.

 

The Idiot is a Japanese drama about a man suffering from a mental issue who enters a love triangle between his friend and shamed woman. Kameda (Masayuki Mori) is a WWII veteran whose psychological trauma as a prisoner of war lead to physical issues that altered his personality making him come away overly innocent and trusting, almost child-like. Acting on unfiltered love and compassion which many consider to be foolish, he is deemed by some as an “idiot.” Returning to his home in a snowy Hokkaido he befriends fellow war returnee, the gruff Akama (Toshiro Mifune), who is obsessed with Taeko (Setsuko Hara), a beautiful, yet wicked mistress of a wealthy man who seeks to sell her to another suitor. The timid Kameda shares a budding love to a headstrong young Ayako (Yoshiko Kuga), but finds an attraction in his compassion towards Taeko in the sadness he sees in her, which Taeko finds appealing. A jealous Akama murders Taeko, but despite the evil act Kameda consuls his troubled friend in the freezing temperatures until they both succumb to the elements, leaving those who knew Kameda to wish they could love without hatred as Kameda lived. 

 

A very long film, with a very disjointed structure, the picture suffers from obvious, non-artistic editing that largely whittles down the first act of place setting and character introductions to accelerate to the heart of the story. Notwithstanding these jarring edits, the picture is shown great care in its filming and assemblage where it was left untouched by the studio. Under the watchful eye of Kurosawa, the camera tells the story with beautiful framing, careful movement, and inspired acting. A dramatic winter setting takes this eastern movie into a more culturally western produced movie settings, a frigid, taxing climate that parallels the cold, unforgiving nature of the characters in the story. Through this it creates a world where the warm innocence of Kameda’s goodness is punctuated through the greatly flawed surroundings he finds himself in.

 

Having been a great fan of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, whom he believed perhaps best captured the human struggle, filmmaker Akira Kurosawa long wished to adapt his favorite work of the author, The Idiot, as one of his films. In adapting the story the setting was moved from Russia to Japan, but Kurosawa would keep as much of the original influences by setting the story in the snowy northern region in Hokkaido to mimic the rugged climate much of Russia was known for. With that heavy clothing influenced by the western nations serving as wardrobe for his characters the picture further connects Kurosawa influence in styles outside of his homeland. Classic Russian orchestra pieces are added to the film’s score, giving emphasis to the origins of the story, as well as tying the production to a more timeless and transcendent quality.

 

Aside from changes in setting, Kurosawa kept the story rather close to the original source material, which led to the greatest flaw the film would have, its length. A long novel being adapted to the screen would reasonably result in a long film, and thus it would be with Kurosawa turning in a 265 minute feature. Originally Kurosawa desired the project to be released in two parts which would have been a rare feat to accomplish anywhere in cinema, especially in a conservative Japanese market. Of course, this was denied by the studio and the final production was not a desired production they were looking showcase to help produce profits.

 

Without consulting the filmmaker the studio imposed that 100 minutes be trimmed away from the film. Many of the edits are sloppy, simply lopping off large chanks of the first act, and in a couple of cases replacing it with title cards or narration trim down to the story to its heart. It is painfully obvious where the cuts are made, but it would still result in a feature that ran nearly three hours long. Despite the crudeness of the final film’s trimming, realizing that there was 100 more minutes of material removed is difficult to imagine, but the scars it left behind in the final product are painful as well. Sadly, the original full version of the picture would never be exhibited publicly and has been altogether lost to the disappointment of the director and cinema historians.

 

Features in the cast are many of Kurosawa’s usual stable of players. Masayuki Mori fronts the cast as the titular idiot, Kameda, portray as a wide-eyed man of compassion and love. His performance as the scorned simpleton makes him the desired, caring hero of the story. Toshiro Mifune brings his common style of character in Akama with a duality of dramatic rage and jealousy contrasted with moments of introspection and revelation that can make him very likable despite the evil he produces. Setsuko Hara was a massive star of beauty in Japan that portrays the troubled Taeko, a woman troubled with how she is perceived, taking it out on others when she can. 20 year-old Yoshiko Kuga appears as the young, innocent love interest of Kameda, who best shares the moral that she can be considered an idiot for not being able to love so innocently as Kameda. Mixed in with the cast is a common appearance of Kurosawa favorite Takashi Shimura, who is always a treat to watch in his features.

 

Released in May of 1951, The Idiot rode on the domestic success Kurosawa had received from his previous feature Rashomon, as well as the mass appeal of actress Setsuko Hara. Notwithstanding the issues the picture had with its length and troubled editing job in parts of the story, the film remained to be a financial success yet not quite a critical success. Somewhat by surprise in September Rashomon played at and win the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, propelling Kurosawa to international acclaim, bring with it added attention to his other productions. Additional praise found its way towards The Idiot, but Kurosawa’s future works would overshadow it very quickly.

 

The Idiot would be a great disappointment of Kurosawa’s career, a quiet subject he carried within himself for most of his life. Of all his features he would receive more requests to talk about his film, his blundered passion project than any of his other great films, even Rashomon. It is the production which audiences are unable to experience the full breath of the work he put behind it. To this day those removed 100 minutes remain missing and the original edit is considered one of the great lost films of all time. This disappoint would not slow the filmmaker whose new renowned would continue to hold him high on the pedestal in Japanese cinema for many years to come and impact cinema around the world.