The Bad Sleep Well

An outsider named Kōichi Nishi uses his wits and bold moves to climb the ladder of a powerful Japanese corporation. He marries the crippled daughter of the company’s vice president, forging a personal bond that doubles as a strategic alliance. At the wedding, a cake shaped like the corporation’s headquarters becomes a striking image that also hints at a buried family secret. This hint unsettles the room and nudges Nishi toward actions that test loyalty, corruption, and the price of revenge. As old wounds resurface, he begins to chart a calculated course to settle the score for his father’s death. Along the way he maneuvers rivals, recruits cautious allies, and turns corporate rituals into tools for masking his true motive.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa and released in 1960, The Bad Sleep Well is a loose Hamlet inspired crime drama. Its design and pacing push Kurosawa to new tonal shifts, and the performances sharpen the moral stakes. Screenplay is credited to Eijiro Hisaita, Ryuzo Kikushima, and Shinobu Hashimoto.

Critics have treated the film as a sharp look at corporate power and a meditation on vengeance. Kurosawa blends noir mood with Shakespearean echoes to explore how ambition corrodes ethics and leaves personal and institutional ties strained or broken. Its visual clarity and controlled violence invite repeated viewings and careful analysis of motive.

The wedding cake motif, shaped like the company’s headquarters, remains a memorable image that underscores the film’s theme of private life colliding with corporate ambition. The sequence invites viewers to read power as a public ritual with private consequences. The image continues to spark discussion among fans and scholars.

Box office figures for The Bad Sleep Well are not provided in the available data. The film remains a respected Kurosawa title, valued more for its technical craft and narrative risks than for blockbuster receipts.