An offbeat, virtually unaccountable work from the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, mixing the stylizes soap and the action flick, concerns the legendary doctor called Red Beard who attempts to influence his disciples to turn away from private practice to use their skills on the poor and sick. "The film bowls along magnificently in a weird mixture of genuine emotion, absurdity and poetic fantasy" (Time Out). With Toshiro Mifune as Dr. Gillespie, Yuzo Kayama, Yoshio Tsuchiya.