In this loose adaptation of “Hamlet,” illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi (Toshirô Mifune) climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter (Kyôko Kagawa) of company vice president Iwabuchi (Masayuki Mori). 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.

Kôichi Nishi hunts down his father’s killer in director Akira Kurosawa’s scathing The Bad Sleep Well. Continuing his legendary collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa combines elements of Hamlet and American film noir to chilling effect in exposing the corrupt boardrooms of postwar corporate Japan.