Red Beard
A fresh medical graduate dreams of a prestigious position as a private physician, but is thrust into a gritty Edo-era clinic under the iron‑fisted Dr. Red Beard, where he must confront brutal poverty, moral dilemmas and a desperate patient from a brothel to prove his true calling.
“What is the key to life - power, prestige or peace?”
Synopsis
Noboru Yasumoto aspires to a comfortable position as a personal physician to a wealthy family, but his hopes are dashed when his first job after medical school places him at a small rural clinic under the stern and gruff Dr. Red Beard. Yasumoto resists in various ways, but Red Beard emerges as a wise and patient mentor. Over time, he introduces his student to the less glamorous realities of medical practice, culminating in an assignment for Yasumoto to care for a prostitute who has been rescued from a local brothel.
Credits
Related titles
No curated related titles yet. Use the edit affordance to add "More from this director", "Same franchise", or "Adaptation source material" entries — every change goes through the wiki review queue.
How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 65+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Shot by Asakazu NakaiScored by Masaru SatoDesigned by Yoshiro Muraki
Also known as
- Rotbartde
- Akahigeen
- Red Bearden
- Barbarrojaes
- Barberoussefr
- Barbarossait
Community tags
Be the first to tag this page — tags appear right away. Try a theme, capability, or subject (e.g. WWII, heist, slow burn, time travel, A24).
Cast & Crew
65 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Toshiro Mifune
as Dr. Kyojô Niide
Yuzo Kayama
as Dr. Noboru Yasumoto
Tsutomu Yamazaki
as Sahachi
Reiko Dan
as Osugi
Miyuki Kuwano
as Onaka
Kyoko Kagawa
as Madwoman
Tatsuyoshi Ehara
as Dr. Genzô Tsugawa
Terumi Niki
as Otoyo
Akemi Negishi
as Okuni
Yoshitaka Zushi
as Chôji
Yoshio Tsuchiya
as Dr. Handayû Mori
Eijiro Tono
as Goheiji
Supporting cast
44Takashi Shimura
as Tokubei Izumiya
Chishu Ryu
as Mr. Yasumoto
Haruko Sugimura
as Kin, the madam
Kinuyo Tanaka
as Madame Yasumoto
Eijiro Yanagi
as Madwoman's father
Koji Mitsui
as Heikichi
Ko Nishimura
as Chief retainer
Nobuo Chiba
as Matsudaira
Kamatari Fujiwara
as Rokusuke
Ken Mitsuda
as Genpaku Amano
Yoko Fujiyama
as Chigusa, Masae's sister
Yoko Naito
as Masae
Reiko Nanao
as Otoku
Imari Tsuji
as Okatsu
Akiko Nomura
as Ofuku
Sue Mitobe
as Otake
Kin Sugai
as Choji's Mother
Michiko Araki
as Brothel owner
Bokuzen Hidari
as Patient A
Atsushi Watanabe
as Patient B
Yasuzo Ogawa
as Businessman
Yutaka Sada
as Resident
Ikio Sawamura
as Resident
Noriko Honma
as Resident
Miyoko Nakamura
as Okoto
Akiko Kazami
as Masae's mother
Chisato Aoki
as Prostitute
Kyoko Kurisu
as Prostitute
Yukiko Yanagishita
as Prostitute
Toshiko Fukai
as Prostitute
Keiko Tomita
as Girl on street
Shoji Oki
as Thug
Shoichi Hirose
as Thug
Hiroyoshi Yamaguchi
as Thug
Masanobu Okubo
as Choji's Father
Fujio Tokita
as Thug
Yasuo Araki
as Thug
Hiroshi Tanaka
as Thug
Shin Ibuki
as Thug
Kanzo Uni
as Thug
Hiroto Kimura
as Thug
Shu Komoro
as Thug
Ryu Kuze
as Thug
Susumu Ishikawa
as (uncredited)
Directors
1Writers
4Producers
2Other crew
4Parents Guide
AI Personalities
Advisory Bot AI
I keep the family-safety picture honest — community advisories, AI-moderated, summarized without spin.
Ratings & reviews
Official ratings
We’re attempting to crowdsource this data.
Please submit below if you know where it’s available in your region — accurate confirmations help everyone find what they’re looking for.
Where to watch
Live · bot-verified- The Criterion ChannelStream
Gallery
Add imageNo community images for Red Beard yet
Add a still, a storyboard, or concept art — every image gets its own page where members can discuss it.
Trailers
No trailers logged for Red Beard yet — add the first one below.
Spot a trailer we’re missing?
Add a trailer from any film, show, or game.
Media & Uploads
Scripts, set photos, storyboards, score sketches — community-curated reference material for film students and industry professionals.
Did you or a loved one work on Red Beard?
Every stage matters — pitch decks and treatments from development, location scouts and table-reads from pre-production, set photos and crew anecdotes from production, edit-bay notes from post, and press kits, festival memories, or marketing ephemera from distribution. Any moment that didn't make the press tour, any document or photograph that's been sitting in a box — please share it so it's not lost to time.
We particularly welcome contributions from writers, producers, cast, crew, festival programmers, distributors, marketing teams, their families, and anyone who was there at any stage.
Sign in to contribute scripts, stills, photos, or behind-the-scenes stories.
Be the first to share something on Red Beard.
Scripts, scans, photos, score sketches — anything that helps another reader study this work.
Memorable quotes
Browse all →No quotes logged for Red Beard yet — add the first memorable line below.
Got a quote we’re missing?
Submit a line from any film, show, or game.
The conversation
Loading the conversation…
Comments (0)
on Red BeardNo comments yet. Be the first to share what you think.
Edit history
Loading edit history…