 This Akira Kurosawa film tells the tale of young Dr. Yasumoto, a recent medical graduate assigned to a rural clinic for his post-graduate medical training. Yasumoto is condescending and arrogant--he is livid that he, who aspires to join the team of physicians caring for the Japanese Shogunate, should have to train in Dr. Niide s spartan clinic serving the impoverished local population. He finds Dr. Niide, known as  Red Beard , a demanding taskmaster with a brusque manner and intense devotion to his patients. Niide requires nothing less than a monastic lifestyle of his interns. However, gradually Yasumoto is changed by his exposure to Red Beard. He learns the true meaning of being a doctor, seeing patients as real people who are suffering and as individuals whose lives he can improve and heal with his care.