Opening with a bravura wedding sequence and ending with a sycophantic bow to a replaced telephone receiver, the film has its longueurs, but Mifune's buttoned-down avenger is a compelling portrait of righteous obsession foundering on unpredictable reality.

Kurosawa rather loaded the film on the side of social significance, while neglecting to capitalise on the noir aspects that underlie it. Even so, his use of the 'scope screen is masterly.

A freestyle homage to Hamlet that does away with the costumed faithfulness of Kurosawa's other Shakespeare adaptations.

Kurosawa constructs a Shakespearean revenge plot that illustrates, with much pathos, an argument about corporate corruption in postwar Japanese society, with a compelling and restrained performance by Toshiro Mifune. [Full review in Spanish]