Akira Kurosawa's

The Bad Sleep Well

1960

Japan Unutilized Land Development Corporation Table of Organization
		President Arimura Ken Mitsuda
		Vice President Iwabuchi Masayuki Mori		Secretary to VP Nishi (Itakura) Toshiro Mifune
	Administrative Officer Moriyama Takashi Shimura		Chief of Contracts Shirai Akira Nishimura
			Assistant Chief of Contracts Wada Kamatari Fujiwara

The Japan Unutilized Land Development Corporation is a government agency, which is normally required to competitively bid its projects to ensure the taxpayer does not overpay for public construction. An exception is made only when there is some legitimate doubt that the project can be completed successfully by the lowest-bidding contractor. The bids are rigged because one contractor, Dairyu Construction, secretly colludes with officers of the corporation to overbid, and the contracting officers disqualify the other bidders by demanding a detailed cost breakdown. Dairyu is prepared to provide a detailed breakdown of their bid because they knew the request was coming. Thus, Dairyu is awarded the project for ¥ 12 billion (about $30 million), when the other contractors bid between ¥ 8.5 billion and ¥ 9 billion. Part of the extra ¥ 3 billion is retained by Dairyu as extra profits and part is secretly rebated to corporation officials. Dairyu collects monopoly profits, because it is protected from the competition of the bidding process and gets the job anyway, and the corrupt officials are simply stealing this money from the taxpayer.

The police are investigating bid-rigging from construction of a city office building five years ago. At that time, the Assistant Chief of Contracts was murdered or ordered to commit suicide because he would not participate in the scheme. His place has now been taken by Wada (Kamitari Fujiwara). Wada and his counterpart in Dairyu, Miyura (Gen Shimizu, who also appears in Monster Zero (1965)), are both arrested in an effort to make them turn state's evidence against their superiors. Wada is arrested just as he is supposed to serve as master of ceremonies at the wedding of Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune) and Yoshiko Iwabuchi (Kyoko Kagawa, the photographer in Mothra (1961)). Yoshiko is the daughter of corporation Vice President Iwabuchi (Masayuki Mori), the principal figure in the bid-rigging. Nishi is the vice president's personal secretary, and everyone assumes Nishi is marrying the boss's daughter solely to advance his career. Also present at the wedding are corporation President Arimura (Ken Mitsuda), Dairyu President Hatano (Sensho Matsumoto), Administrative Officer Moriyama (Takashi Shimura – Dr. Yamane the paleontologist in Godzilla), who all give speeches, Chief of Contracts Shirai (Akira Nishimura), who replaces his subordinate Wada as master of ceremonies, and Iwabuchi's son Tatsuo (Tatsuya Mihashi), an alcoholic playboy. The lead journalist covering the scandal is played by Yoshibumi Tajima, the slimy entrepreneur Kumoyama in Godzilla versus the Thing (1964).

To protect themselves, the conspirators order Wada and Miyura to commit suicide. Miyura does but Nishi saves Wada to use against the conspirators. Nishi's father Furaya was Wada's murdered predecessor, and the only reason Nishi has married Yoshiko is to get closer to Iwabuchi. Nishi takes Wada to Wada's Shinto funeral, paid for by the corporation. Wada is pleased they have spared no expense, but Nishi plays him a tape of Moriyama and Shirai gloating as they plot his killing.

Nishi has traded identities with Itakura (Takeshi Kato, who also appears in Kurosawa's Ran (1985)), who operates Nishi's former auto dealership and assists with his revenge plans. The dealership provides the corporation with large black Chryslers, as well as Nishi's smaller grey Studebaker. No Japanese cars appear in this film; Tatsuo drives an MG Midget and Miyura's lawyer a Chevrolet.

It is never made clear how much of the overbid is rebated to the corporation officials by Dairyu Construction, but it is revealed that Dairyu has only paid half of the agreed amount. Because of their different levels of seniority, Moriyama, Shirai, and Wada each received ¥ 15 million, ¥ 7 million, and ¥ 3 million. Wada's bribe was worth about $ 2,500. The dollar was worth about 400 yen in 1960. Today's 2002 exchange rate is about 120 yen. We do not learn how much Iwabuchi received, but it is probably several hundred million.

Akira Kurosawa [1910-1998] was Japan's most highly regarded film director. His nickname on the set was "tenno," or emperor, and he is also known as "the sensei of cinema."

Toshiro Mifune [1920-1997] (Nishi) starred in many of Kurosawa's films, including Drunken Angel (1948) as a gangster, The Quiet Duel (1949) as Takashi Shimura's son, Stray Dog (1949) as the police officer who loses his gun, Scandal (1950), Rashomon (1950) as the bandit, The Seven Samurai (1954), Record of a Living Being (1955), The Throne of Blood (1957), The Lower Depths (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962), High and Low (1963), and Red Beard (1965). An international star, he has been in many English-language films, including Storm over the Pacific (1960), Retreat from Kiska (1964), Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965), Grand Prix (1967), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) as Admiral Yamamoto, Midway (1976), and 1941 (1980).

Takashi Shimura [1905-1982] (Moriyama), one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century, starred in Kurosawa's The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945), Those Who Make Tomorrow (1946), No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), Drunken Angel (1948), as the doctor who contracts syphilis by operating on Toshiro Mifune, The Quiet Duel (1949), Stray Dog (1949) as Toshiro Mifune's boss, Scandal (1950) as Mifune's lawyer, Rashomon (1950) as the woodcutter, The Idiot (1951), Ikiru (1952) as the bureaucrat dying of stomach cancer, The Seven Samurai (1954) as the head samurai, Record of a Living Being (1955), The Throne of Blood (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962), High and Low (1963), Red Beard (1965), and finally, in Kagemusha (1980). He also starred in Godzilla (1954), Godzilla's Counterattack (1955), The Mysterians (Earth Defense Forces) (1957), Mothra (1961), Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster (1964), and most kaiju eigan films until his death.

Masayuke Mori (Iwabuchi) starred in Kurosawa's Those Who Make Tomorrow (1946), Rashomon (1950), and The Idiot (1951).

Kamatari Fujiwara [1905-] (Wada) starred in Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952), The Seven Samurai (1954), Record of a Living Being (1955), The Lower Depths (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962), Red Beard (1965), and Kagemusha (1980).

Composer Masaru Sato [1928-1999] scored most of Kurosawa's films until 1965. He also composed the scores for Godzilla's Counterattack (1955), The H Man (1958), and Son of Godzilla (1967).

Like High and Low, The Bad Sleep Well is based on an American novel by Ed McBain. The screenplay introduces many parallels with Hamlet. Nishi is Prince Hamlet. Iwabuchi and Moriyama serve the purpose of King Claudius. Yoshiko mainly parallels the character of Ophelia, but she also has some elements of Queen Gertrude. Note in particular that she is drugged, though not poisioned, by her father. Tatsuo has the function of Laertes, though there is no final duel. Wada and Itakura take on the function of the ghost of Hamlet's father.