is a 1951 Japanese film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa. It is based on the 1869 novel The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The original 265-minute version of the film, faithful to the novel, has been lost for many years. A nearly three-hour release, reflecting a 100-minute studio-imposed cut, survives as the most complete version of the film available for contemporary audiences. The film stars Setsuko Hara who plays the part of Taeko Nasu, the beautiful mistress of Tohata. The characters are involved in a weblike plot of intersecting relationships. Plot Part One: Love and Agony The action starts on a ship traveling from Okinawa. Kameda, who suffers from "epileptic dementia" (which he refers to as "idiocy"), is heading to Hokkaido. The movie explains that "Dostoyevsky wanted to portray a genuinely good man. It may seem ironic, choosing a young idiot as his hero, but in this world, goodness and idiocy are often equated. The story tells of the destruction of a pure soul by a faithless world." Kameda has been confined to a mental asylum since he suffered a mental breakdown after he was mistaken for a war criminal and almost executed by a firing squad following World War II. During his journey, he meets and becomes friends with Denkichi Akama, who "hadn't laughed for years. He was the son of an old Sapporo family, and his father's harsh discipline had made him feel like a caged animal. Oddly, he came to like Kameda, who made him laugh heartily. Akama told him (Kameda) about Taeko Nasu, whom he'd met six months earlier. One look at her had been enough to release his pent-up passions." Akama is returning home to Hokkaido for the first time since he stole money from his father to buy a diamond ring for Taeko. Taeko was the beautiful mistress of a rich man named Tohata since she was a child, but she ran away six months earlier, at the same time as when Akama had bought her the ring. Akama's father has since died, and he is on his way to claim a large inheritance. Akama and Kameda are both on the same train to Sapporo. Kameda is on his way to see Mr. Ono, "his only relative in the world". Mr. Ono's wife asks her husband what he is going to do about Kameda. He tells her that he will try to find Kameda