Red Beard

Originally written January 12, 2015

Red Beard is my favorite Kurosawa film that we have watched in class. I especially like the way it stresses the importance of kindness and selflessness, and the goodness of human nature. Though the film is set in 1800s Japan, there are many elements of the film that parallel things in my life, or in the world today, and I think that’s why I loved this film. It is every bit as relevant here and now as it was in 1965, when it was first released in Japan. 

In the film, a young doctor named Yasumoto has his first assignment out of medical school, in a medical clinic for the poor, run by a doctor everyone calls Red Beard. Though they sometimes treat the rich people in their town to fund the clinic, these men give up higher positions and careers to help the marginalized people around them. 

Today there are people who could have respected, well paid jobs in hospitals or as other kinds of doctors, but instead make the choice to use their knowledge and skill working somewhere like Salt Lake’s Fourth Street Clinic. Fourth Street Clinic is a medical center that gives homeless people here access to primary care. They have 50 employees and over 150 licensed volunteers, without them this work would be impossible. 

In Red Beard, Yasumoto and Red Beard save a little girl, Otoyo, from a brothel. She becomes Yasumoto’s first patient. Even in our modern world there are many cases of children in slavery being sexually abused for profit. The International Justice Mission is an organization that is not only raising awareness of modern day slavery, but is actually on the ground fighting to end it. They work to get protective legislation put in place, and, like Red Beard and Yasumoto, they work rescuing enslaved children and giving them the care they need.

 In the film, you can see a chain reaction of kindness. Red Beard is kind to Yasumoto, who is kind to Otoyo, who is kind to a little boy named Chobo, who stops stealing at her request. Sometimes in our lives, it is harder to trace exactly these pathways of kindness, but we know they are there. 

One of the most fulfilling parts of my life is my choice to be vegetarian. While I think I would have stopped eating meat at some point, it would have taken me much longer had it not been for a chain starting with my brother meeting the girl he eventually married. She has been a vegetarian since childhood. Pretty soon he became vegetarian, then my little sister, then me, then my little brother, and just this week my favorite cousin made the announcement that he has also made the switch. I am grateful for my sister-in-law’s influence in that respect. We never know who we are going to effect by just living our lives in a kind, aware way, so we should always try to be the best we can in that moment. 

Another part of the film that I can see reflected in my life is the message that we all have many facets of ourselves, and that they are all valid. When Yasumoto first comes to the clinic, he sees himself as hardworking, honest, principled, and dedicated. He comes to see himself as arrogant, egotistical, and selfish, and for a while he gets really sad because he thinks that is all there is to him. In reality, and as he comes to learn, he is a mixture of good and bad, and once he is aware of his negative qualities, he can work to lessen them, and concentrate on the good things he does well. 

I think that most people will feel this is echoed in their own life. We all have moments when we feel great about ourselves, and times we feel terrible and worthless. I think that it is important to remember that we are all a combination of good and bad, and that we always have the choice of what our next action will be. 

Red Beard teaches us that we should find purpose in serving people around us with love. Even though there is bad in the world, and in each of us, there is also lots of good and we should choose that side of our nature. This film brilliantly catches points in human nature that keep it relevant, even now, 50 years after its original release, and on the other side of the planet from where it’s set. The themes are echoed in the world, and in my life, and that is why the film is so meaningful to me. I will certainly be sharing it with other people, in the hope that they also find the message moving.