The Idiot (1951)
Original title: 白痴
The Idiot is a 1951 Japanese-language drama movie directed by Akira Kurosawa, with a running time of 2h 46m. It stars Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori and Toshirō Mifune.
A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.
Where to watch The Idiot
Stream: Criterion Channel
Cast
- Setsuko Hara as Taeko Nasu
- Masayuki Mori as Kinji Kameda
- Toshirō Mifune as Denkichi Akama
- Yoshiko Kuga as Ayako
- Takashi Shimura as Ono, Ayako's father
- Chieko Higashiyama as Satoko, Ayako's mother
- Eijirō Yanagi as Tohata
- Minoru Chiaki as Mutsuo Kayama, the secretary
- Noriko Sengoku as Takako
- Kokuten Kōdō as Junpei
- Bokuzen Hidari as Karube
- Eiko Miyoshi as Madame Kayama