it has been mentioned in the past how i am rather fond of akira kurosawa's melodramatic films, despite not being able to get a handle on his more popular samurai films. im not sure why exactly this is, i have always blamed the complicated politics of the films as the probable reason, and have all but given up on the genre. "the idiot" is kurosawa's love letter of sorts to the work of fyodor dostoevsky, with the source material's location of russia being transferred to kurosawa's home of japan. not having read the novel i cant attain to it personally, but the film is said to be fairly close an adaptation to the original book. based upon the fact that the film is paced very similiar to that of a novel in the way that the relationships and characters develop it would certainly seem that this is the case.
akira kurosawa's "scandal" (1950), produced just one year before "the idiot" is one of my very favourite films, hence the seeking out of this picture, and while it doesnt reach the heights of "scandal" its still a magnificent film. if one looks back on kurosawa's run throughout the early 1950's it truly is quite the accomplishment, regardless of your feelings towards some of the work. alongside "scandal" and "the idiot", kurosawa produced "rashomon" (1951), "ikiru" (1952) and "the seven samurai" (1954), truly a genuinely historical run of films.
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