Alternate Best Actor 1960: Toshiro Mifune in The Bad Sleep Well

Toshiro Mifune did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Kōichi Nishi in The Bad Sleep Well. 

The Bad Sleep Well is often said to be Kurosawa's Hamlet in the corporate world.

That description I don't think that is truly all accurate, and I'd never consider this an adaptation of Hamlet. This is not Ran which has some key changes but is mostly the story of Lear in terms of the overall progression of the story, The Bad Sleep Well is very much its own beast. The same is true for the film as it exists within the collaborative history of Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa. Unlike most of their collaborations, you might think Mifune's character is a supporting if even minor role during essentially the entire first act of the film. If you did not know who Mifune is when watching the film, you'd probably think nothing about the character of the groom in the opening scene. A silent man, with a rather stiff posture and slightly awkward manner. There isn't anything notable about the man, nor does there appear to be anything notable a Mifune. Of course, if you know who Mifune is, this in a way is its own achievement of sorts as Mifune always stands out, so performance as a man who doesn't stand out is kind of a strange achievement all its own. He's just kind of there and seemingly a man of no importance, exactly what his character should be. And with this, you can see the brilliance of their collaboration because Kurosawa didn't set a single type of role for Mifune, he could be the larger-than-life samurai, but he could also be a simple corporate "drone". 

Mifune doesn't even seem like the lead for a good half hour into the film when one of the corporate underlings is suggested he commits suicide by the corporate brass lest they be caught in their corruption charges. As the man is about to kill himself on a foggy mountain, Mifune's Nishi suddenly appears to stop the man from ending his life, not for any charity but rather to enable him to use the man as he pleases. Mifune's performance is still atypical within Kurosawa fair, from his glasses to his stiff posture to his whole manner, even when Nishi reveals himself, it is something else from Mifune. Where so often Mifune's work is about his wild physicality, the physicality here is still apparent yet extremely reserved instead of flamboyant. All of this is as logical as his portrayal of a crazed wannabe Samurai, as Mifune's performance realizes a man who is constrained both as a man pretending to be another man, and also as this other man as just a nothing company man. The traditional Mifune is quite apparent though, if a bit more hidden here, as we are granted the intensity Mifune is most known for, however, utilized here differently. His intensity is contained and volcanic, as he uses it as a weapon in this first scene where he verbally baggers the other man, speaking with such disdain for the worthless life he sees in front of him, and the nature of the men that the man was willing to kill himself for. 

Mifune though more often holds it in as he presents Nishi as this calm player at this game as he takes the suicidal man to his own funeral, to manipulate the man in changing allegiances by showing the dismissive nature of the man he "died" for. Mifune's eyes still stare daggers, but there is more than that here. There's a sense of cool and really smooth quality as he enacts this operation. Comfort and confidence in his manner as he goes about this method of revenge. Mifune presents a distinct sense of satisfaction as he slowly breaks down the man to do his bidding, and there is real joy in the whole process. Mifune isn't presenting a man just blithely going about revenge, he's showing a man who has taken time to consider every step of his revenge and takes great pride in going about his unusual task. Mifune plays around here with revenge in a particularly unusual way, and where the Hamlet comparison is apt, however not quite correct. The character of Nishi is very specifically doing an operation here, with his friend Itakura (Takeshi Katō) with whom he exchanged identities, to avenge the death of his father who was suggested to commit suicide by the corrupt men. Mifune's performance though is a combination of that genuine desire for revenge also creating this idea of a man who is in a way playing the game of revenge as it so defines Nishi's life. To the point that even Mifune shows the different ways his more expressive intensity is used here, at times directly to threaten, baring all the hate of a wronged son, however at a moment's notice Mifune shows the man change gear. The emotion doesn't fade but the directness of the intensity shows that even this is used with a certain purpose. 

There is a slow unraveling of exactly who Nishi is as this kind of mystery is at the center of the film, and Mifune excels within this idea. An idea that is so very different from many of his characters because of how careful and reserved his character is. Mifune segues naturally between the moments of the dutiful son-in-law who is of no importance, to the smooth operator lording his genius over his opponents, and of the angry son seeking vengeance. Mifune is convincing in each shade but what is more notable is the way he shows that in a certain respect, he's purposefully playing each shade as a choice that Nishi is making to put on one thing or another. The one aspect where this is not true is where we see Nishi's great sin in his operation here, which is marrying the corrupt VP (Masayuki Mori)'s handicapped daughter Yoshiko (Kyōko Kagawa), who is completely innocent in the situation. Initially, Mifune portrays these moments with a tight internalization of the man just taking in the crime, feeling the shame of it, but also living with that shame of it. It is exacerbated as his feelings for her end up not being false, and when pressed on that Mifune shows this excellent sort of leaking of this truth, that he is still trying to hold in as this shame. When one of the men he's turned brings Yoshiko through these all turns, Mifune is altogether brilliant in the scene. It is a scene without a facade, but a great deal of vulnerability as he can't quite face her though he lets out his emotional truths to her. Mifune delivers every line so gently yet so powerfully that has this catharsis of a man who has held so much in genuinely sharing himself with another. Showing the tragedy of the man's venture by revealing that a likely better life with Yoshiko would've been possible without the bad that men do. To be redundant, this is another great performance by Toshiro Mifune, that excels in different unexpected ways, and upon re-watch, this is all the more color and detail in a very atypical Mifune protagonist.