The Idiot

Overview

A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.

Stream

Criterion Channel

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Top cast

Setsuko Hara

Taeko Nasu

Masayuki Mori

Kinji Kameda

Toshirō Mifune

Denkichi Akama

Yoshiko Kuga

Ayako

Takashi Shimura

Ono, Ayako's father

Chieko Higashiyama

Satoko, Ayako's mother

Eijirō Yanagi

Tohata

Minoru Chiaki

Mutsuo Kayama, the secretary

Noriko Sengoku

Takako

Kokuten Kōdō

Junpei

Bokuzen Hidari

Karube

Eiko Miyoshi

Madame Kayama