Red Beard Blu-ray
HomeRed Beard Blu-ray
Posted April 15, 2026 05:04 AM by Webmaster
The British Film Institute has provided final details for its upcoming Blu-ray release of Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard (1965), starring Takashi Shimura, Chishû Ryû, Toshirô Mifune, Yûzô Kayama, and Tsutomu Yamazaki. The release is scheduled to arrive on the market on May 11.
Description: Akira Kurosawa's last black and white film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award after its original release; and lead actor Toshiro Mifune won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. On 11 May the BFI brings this poignant period drama to Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. Special features include an audio commentary by filmmaker Kenta McGrath.
Akira Kurosawa's intimate, episodic epic follows a socially ambitious young doctor (Yuzo Kayama) as he arrives at a rural clinic in 19th-century Japan to study alongside the commanding yet caring Dr Kyojio Niide, known as Red Beard (Toshiro Mifune). Kurosawa's film is a poignant tale of humanity and the meaning of responsibility featuring a powerhouse performance by Mifune in his final collaboration with the director after making 16 films together, marking the end of one of the most remarkable relationships in cinema.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Description: Akira Kurosawa's last black and white film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award after its original release; and lead actor Toshiro Mifune won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. On 11 May the BFI brings this poignant period drama to Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. Special features include an audio commentary by filmmaker Kenta McGrath.
Akira Kurosawa's intimate, episodic epic follows a socially ambitious young doctor (Yuzo Kayama) as he arrives at a rural clinic in 19th-century Japan to study alongside the commanding yet caring Dr Kyojio Niide, known as Red Beard (Toshiro Mifune). Kurosawa's film is a poignant tale of humanity and the meaning of responsibility featuring a powerhouse performance by Mifune in his final collaboration with the director after making 16 films together, marking the end of one of the most remarkable relationships in cinema.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- 2K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
- Audio commentary by filmmaker Kenta McGrath
- Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create – Red Beard (2002, 22 mins): created as part of the Toho Masterworks series and featuring interviews with Kurosawa, actors Yoshio Tsuchiya and Kyoko Kagawa, art director Yoshiro Muraki and others
- Introduction by Alex Cox (2003, 14 mins)
- Toshiro Mifune in Conversation (1986, 61 mins, audio only): the actor discusses his life and career with critic and writer David Shipman, recorded at the NFT
- District Nurse (1952, 27 mins): a public information film by Sarah Erulkar made to promote Britain's new National Health Service to overseas audiences – and to encourage applications to the nursing profession
- Doctor's Dilemma (1948, 1 min): this public information trailer hammers home the urgency of citizens playing their part in time for the launch of the NHS
- Mother (1947, 16 mins): a social worker in India is the face of modern childbirth in this United Nations-sponsored educational film by Paul Zils
- Original theatrical trailer
- Audio:
- Japanese DTS-HD MA 5.1
- Japanese LPCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)
- First pressing only: Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Hayley Scanlon, on the music and the film's composer by Charlie Brigden, an essay on actor Yûzô Kayama by James-Masaki Ryan and writing on the short films by Yuriko Hamaguchi; plus, film credits and notes on the special features
- REGION-B "LOCKED"
