Drunken Angel written and direct by Akira Kurosawa (1948)
5 February 2008Another Criterion Edition, the only company out that seems to really care about getting amazing editions of all of Kurosawa’s films out in the US, and thankfully they did this film when they did because even after a restoration this print has certainly seen better days. Still with Shimura Takashi and Mifune Toshiro playing off each other in this one, you can’t really go wrong, I don’t think Kurosawa ever had better actors than these two. This is a great look at life for low end, mixed with the Yakuza in the slums around Tokyo soon after the war, and sure some of the locations are obviously sets, and Mifune’s makeup can be a little over the top, but this movie about an unconventional friendship and learning that the Yakuza only uses words like honor, and doesn’t actually believe in them is a powerful and enjoyable film. And Shimura’s gruff anti-hero (he is good, but gruff and always says what he thinks) has become such a staple in later films that you know films like this heavily influenced them, and this film certainly reminded me of Ikage Sensei which was made much later. A must see for any Kurosawa fan.
Shimura Takashi plays Doctor Sanada, an excellent doctor, and voracious drunk living in the slums outside Tokyo with his grandmother and a nurse named Miyo (Nakakita Chieko) who he looks after (and likes) since her Yakuza husband went to prison. The doctor speaks his mind on everything, and people think he is mean, but that is just how he is. And when he wants to help someone, he will give his all. Matsunaga (Mifune Toshiro) is a punk who runs the local market comes in because he has a bullet in his hand. Sanada fixes the hand with no anesthetic, and quickly diagnoses Matsunaga with tuberculerosis, and Matsunaga ignores him, and attacks him, but is stopped by Miyo. Eventually Matsunaga realizes that Sanada is right, and he must do something, but he still doesn’t want to go get an X-Ray from the successful doctor who is Sanada’s old classmate, as Matsunaga doesn’t want to seem week in front of his men.
Miyo tells Sanada that her ex has just gotten out, and will probably come for her, and maybe she should go to him, but Sanada scolds her.
Matsunaga keeps to his old ways, and gets sicker and sicker, but he does get an x-ray and Sanada’s old classmate tells him he took it, so Sanada goes to look Matsunaga, but he won’t come, or at least not until he is drink. As Sanada and Miyo take care of the drunken Matsunaga, Miyo hears someone different playing guitar, and realizes it is her ex Okada (Yamamoto Reisaburo) and is scared.
Finally Sanada, who we learn was once a punk like Matsunaga, gets Matsunaga to except that he must take treatment, but then he runs into Okada, who makes him go out drinking and smoking with him, and even starts sleeping with his girl Nanae (Kogure Michiyo). And things keep going downhill for Matsunaga until he coughs up blood, and Sanada must come to get him, and realizes his woman has left him.
Okada has taken over from Matsunaga and even learns who Miyo is from Matsunaga’s minions, so they go to get her, but the sick Matsunaga goes out to stop them, and they agree to talk tomorrow. In the morning Sanada goes to talk to the police, but thinking that the Yakuza have honor Matsunaga goes to see the big boss, where he hears him telling Okada that they will use him and have him killed, and he is crushed, so he goes to attack Okada in Nanae’s apartment, but his TB gets the better of him and he is killed, but at least Okada is sent to prison for good this time.
We end with Sanada talking to a woman who has Matsunaga’s ashes and wants to take them to her home in the country as she wanted to take him before he died, and Sanada won’t be sad because he is so angry he couldn’t change Matsunaga and make him realize how stupid he was being. A 17 year old TB patient of his comes up and shows him her X-ray and she is cured, so he takes her to get a sweat.
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A very enjoyable film, and an early look at what it was like in Tokyo after the war, with young Yakuza running things, and living a life of luxury, while normal people lived in absolute filth.
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