The Bad Sleep Well (1960)

Almost every shot in The Bad Sleep Well is a well-structured composition in black and white. The attention to detail makes the story even more compelling, which is quite an accomplishment because the film is two and a half hours long.

(This blog post about The Bad Sleep Well contains almost all the spoilers.)

One of the most compelling scenes in the film is the one where Itakura mourns the death of his friend, Kōichi Nishi. It is all too much for Nishi’s bride, Yoshiko, who has to be supported by her brother Tatsuo (Yoshiko and her brother witness Itakura’s anguish). Itakura’s despair comes not just from his friend’s death but also from all the work they have done to bring corrupt business executives at Public Corporation for Land Development to justice, only to be defeated by the very same corruption. It’s a powerful scene, so much so that I almost wish—almost—that the film had ended there.

The film starts with the Kōichi Nishi and Yoshiko Iwabuchi wedding reception in an elegant hotel. The bride is the daughter of the president of Public Corporation for Land Development. The bridegroom, Kōichi Nishi, is the secretary for vice president Iwabuchi. He’s a friend of Tatsuo Iwabuchi, the vice president’s prodigal son. Press reporters and photographers rush in off the elevator and crowd reception workers. They want to ask some questions of some of the guests: Dairya executives have been arrested on criminal charges. Two police detectives arrive next, but they are at the wedding reception to arrest two Public Corporation executives—Miura and assistant chief of contracts Wada—for bribery.

The narrative at the start of the film alternates between events at the wedding reception and discussion by members of the press corps, who watch from a room leading to the reception area. One of the reporters calls administrative officer Moriyama, vice president Iwabuchi, and chief of contracts Shirai the “Clean-Up Trio of Graft.” Five years ago, Public Corporation won a government contract with an illegal bid. A Public Corporation employee, Furuya, subsequently committed suicide by jumping from the seventh floor of the ministry building that was completed as a result of the illegal bid. The press reporters and photographers act almost like a Greek chorus as they comment among themselves on the reception proceedings. They fill in details for each other and the viewers. One of them explains what is known publicly about Furuya’s suicide.

Adding to the unease at what should be a happy event is a comment made by the bride’s brother, Tatsuo Iwabuchi, during his speech at the wedding reception: “I’m counting on you to look after my sister. She’s had a tough life. I may be a mess, but I’d do anything to protect her. Listen, Nishi, if you make my sister unhappy, I swear I’ll kill you!” His comment elicits gasps from the wedding reception guests. Then a second wedding cake arrives as the bride and groom are about to cut the first. The second cake is in the shape of the ministry building built according to the illegal contract, with a rose in the seventh-floor window from which Furuya jumped to his death.

Miura of the Public Corporation is released for lack of evidence in the bribery case, but he is arrested again outside the police station, this time for embezzlement. Miura’s lawyer delivers a message from the president of the corporation: “I know you’ll see this through to the bitter end.” It’s a veiled threat, and Miura commits suicide right after hearing it by throwing himself in front of a passing truck. Wada is also released for lack of evidence, and he goes missing. He plans to throw himself into a volcano and kill himself, but his plan is interrupted by Kōichi Nishi. Nishi and his friend Itakura hold Wada at the offices of N.I. Auto Sales and Service. But it is assumed by everyone else that Wada is dead.

Nishi and Itakura work to expose the corruption at the Public Corporation. Wada is one of the corrupt executives, but his experiences as Nishi’s and Itakura’s hostage change him. He and his captors make some of the most important observations in the film. At one point later in the film, back again in the N.I. Auto Sales and Service offices, Wada tells Nishi that he is working against his own nature:

• Nishi: “I’m too soft. I should have thrown Shirai out that window. If I had, the papers would be all over Iwabuchi and Moriyama by now. I guess I don’t hate them enough.”

• Wada: “Something’s not quite right about you. You’re going against your nature.”

• Nishi: “It’s not easy hating evil. You have to stoke your own fury until you become evil yourself.”

• Wada: “There’s nothing wrong with hating evil, but you’re sacrificing innocent bystanders. Yoshiko-san, for example. You married her as a weapon. What if she finds out your real motive?”

Kōichi Nishi and Itakura also kidnap Moriyama after he discovers Nishi’s true identity. They hold Moriyama in a bombed-out naval factory, where they had worked during World War II before it was carpet-bombed. They are still holding Wada and take him to the same bombed-out ruin. Wada tries again to talk to Nishi and Itakura about their plans:

• Wada: “I’m terrified. If you keep this up, where will it lead? You’re up against a terrifying system that will never yield. Having worked inside it for twenty-five years, I know that in my guts.”

• Nishi: “Everyone feels that way and gives up. That’s how they get away with it.”

Wada escapes and brings Yoshiko to the hideout, where she learns that what her brother Tatsuo has been saying all along about their father is true. But she and Nishi, the man who married her originally out of convenience, are in love after all. When Yoshiko returns home, her father tricks her into telling him where she has been. He lies to his daughter and tells her that he wants to save Nishi from Tatsuo, who took his hunting rifle to look for Nishi, then he poisons her. She survives, but she is barely able to stand on her own after the poisoning. After learning about her husband’s death (Nishi and Wada are killed in an auto accident on railroad tracks), Yoshiko is destroyed physically and emotionally. Her brother has to support her when Itakura despairs over his friend’s death. Tatsuo Iwabuchi returns home with Yoshiko, but only to tell their father that they never want to see him again.

I wrote at the start of this blog post that I almost wish the film ended with the scene where Itakura mourns the death of his friend, Kōichi Nishi. But the film ends instead with vice president Iwabuchi. He gets a mysterious phone call from someone who is never identified and viewers never see. He tells the caller that he agrees to go on vacation and that he looks forward to working again when he returns. Iwabuchi will stop at nothing, including attempting to kill his own daughter, to enrich himself and consolidate his power. The contrast between him and Itakura couldn’t be more dramatic.

I think the film ended the way it should: It showed the contrast between characters who care and those who don’t. The final scene, at first glance, may not seem as powerful as the one including Itakura, Tatsuao, and Yoshiko, but in its quiet way, it is just as powerful—and more chilling. It reminds me of a phrase introduced by Hannah Arendt in 1963: the banality of evil. Arendt wrote about how ordinary people could do evil based on mundane, ordinary motivations. (Click here for more information about Arendt’s writing.) The Bad Sleep Well demonstrates the banality of evil in a different context—in business, not in war—but it shows how ordinary people can be convinced that doing evil is acceptable.

September 19, 1960, release date  •  Directed by Akira Kurosawa  •  Screenplay by Hideo Oguni, Eijirō Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa, Ryūzō Kikushima, Shinobu Hashimoto  •  Music by Masaru Sato  •  Edited by Akira Kurosawa  •  Cinematography by Yuzuru Aizawa

Toshiro Mifune as Kōichi Nishi  •  Masayuki Mori as Public Corporation vice president Iwabuchi  •  Kyōko Kagawa as Yoshiko Nishi  •  Tatsuya Mihashi as Tatsuo Iwabuchi  •  Takashi Shimura as administrative officer Moriyama  •  Kō Nishimura as chief of contracts Shirai  •  Takeshi Katō as Itakura  •  Kamatari Fujiwara as assistant chief of contracts Wada  •  Chishū Ryū as public prosecutor Nonaka  •  Seiji Miyaguchi as prosecutor Okakura  •  Kōji Mitsui as a reporter  •  Ken Mitsuda as Public Corporation president Arimura  •  Nobuo Nakamura as a legal adviser  •  Susumu Fujita as the detective  •  Kōji Nanbara as prosecutor Horiuchi

Distributed by Toho  •  Produced by Toho Co. Ltd., Kurosawa Productions