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Movie
Poster for The Bad Sleep Well

The Bad Sleep Well

1960 · 150 min

A slow, cold descent into corporate rot, where every polite gesture hides a knife and revenge corrodes everyone it touches.

Overview
In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.

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Stream in the UK
  • BFI Player
More options Data from JustWatch
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • darkstrength 3 of 3
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • cynicalstrength 2 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • corruption
  • revenge
  • betrayal
  • guilt
  • family
Places
  • big city
  • workplace
  • single country house
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore mild
  • Language mild
  • Violence strong
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action3
Horror2
Humour2
Realism8
Romance3
Tension7
Darkness8
Complexity8
Emotional weight8

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Where to watch in the UK

Stream
  • BFI Player
Rent or buy
  • Apple TV Store
  • Amazon Video

Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres
crime, drama, thriller
Directed by
Akira Kurosawa
Written by
Eijiro Hisaita, Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa
Starring
Toshirō Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kamatari Fujiwara, Takeshi Katō, Kyōko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takashi Shimura, Kō Nishimura
Music
Masaru Satō
Cinematography
Yuzuru Aizawa
Runtime
150 min
Country
Japan
Languages
Japanese

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