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It is indeed an important, vital film, confidently conceived and expertly executed, illuminating themes that would dominate the finest films in Kurosawa's exceptional career. The setting is a rancid, jerry-built section of a postwar city, where a filthy, disease-ridden pond functions as a physical threat and also as the film's central symbol of decay. It's in this hardscrabble environment that a brash young gangster (Toshiro Mifune, in the role that made him a star) visits an alcoholic doctor (Takashi Shimura) to have a bullet removed from his hand. The doctor discovers that the hot-tempered thug is also doomed by tuberculosis, seen here as the physical manifestation of the gangster's moral decay. The doctor is himself diseased by his drinking, and as these clashing men struggle to make some kind of difference in their pathetic lives (spurned by the return from prison of a ruthless yakuza boss), Kurosawa makes unlikely heroes of them both--men who undergo a personal transformation in a vile and violent world.
Drunken Angel is a transitional film for Japanese cinema and especially for Kurosawa; it offers a vivid glimpse of postwar life (both rotten and restoring), and signals the full blossoming of Kurosawa's talent. And while the title role belongs to Shimura (so memorably poignant in Kurosawa's later masterpiece, Ikiru), the film belongs to the forceful presence of Mifune, whose vitality touches nearly every scene of this timeless and powerful drama. --Jeff Shannon
| CATEGORY: | Video |
| DIRECTOR: | Akira Kurosawa |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 1948 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Homevision |
| MPAA RATING: | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) |
| FEATURES: | Black & White, Original recording remastered, NTSC |
| TYPE: | Drama, Foreign, Foreign Film - Japanese, International, Movie |
| MEDIA: | VHS Tape |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 037429150931 |
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Customer Reviews of Drunken Angel
Flawed characters in a doomed environment Akira Kurosawa's disturbing "Drunken Angel" is an unfettered look into the horror and decay of post war Japan. The film in a realistic approach focuses on a desolate and blighted neighborhood in Tokyo where raw sewage carrying disease sits in a huge puddle in the midst of the populace. <
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>Neighborhood denizen Takashi Shimura playing alcoholic but dedicated Doctor Sanada receives a visit from young local Yakuza boss Matsunaga played by Toshiro Mifune to have a bullet removed from his hand. While examining the young man the doctor detects the presence of TB which is running rampant through the city. Mifune's tough gangster veneer is threatened by this revelation and his own fear makes him balk at seeking treatment. Shimura pursues Mifune pleading with him trying to coax him into treatment and as a result forms an uneasy alliance with the hoodlum. <
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>Shimura meanwhile is living with a woman who serves as a nurse named Miyo played by Chieko Nakakita. She had previously been the woman of Yakuza boss Okada played by Reisaburo Yamamato, who was Mifune's boss and had been in prison for the past 3 years. When he arrived back on the scene he seized back the reins of power of the gang back from Mifune. Mifune by now felt indebtted to the doctor to protect him and his woman Miyo against the unwanted advances of Okada. Mifune in a weakened diseased state in a memorable scene battled Okada is a lethal knife fight. <
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>Kurosawa paints a bleak sobering portrait of life in late 1940's Japan with a decaying environment and imperfect characters Mifune and Shimura who both displayed impressive screen presence in their roles. He nonetheless does insert a ray of hope in his film. A young 17 year old female patient of Shimura's also suffering with TB, who visits him throughout the film, has been cured after diligently following his treatment as the film concludes.
An Absolute Beauty
I am biased, I'll tell you that up front. Kurosawa is my favorite director. Even if he were not, I would still love this film.
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>Takashi Shimura (the head samurai in Seven Samurai)plays an alcoholic doctor in a dumpy urban part of post-war Japan.Toshiro Mifune plays a small-time gangster who initially visits the doctor regarding a bullet wound. The doctor discovers that the gangster also has tuberculosis, and stubbornly tries to treat it. I say stubbornly because the gangster tries to act macho about the disease. The two charactors are both so strongly portrayed that the doctor's attempt to treat the disease and the gangster's faked but desperate non-chalance makes their relationship a struggle; at times they actually come to blows over the doctor's persistence. The doctor , I think, sees some of himself in the gangster; someone on the edge of society, someone with flaws, someone with unfulfilled dreams. The doctor wants the gangster to survive, and the gangster desperately wants to survive, but his "toughness" keeps him from admitting that he wants to live.
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>In any event, my wife and I fall in love with the doctor everytime we see this film. He is the better angel of our nature, scolding and caring. Watch the film; you too will fall in love with it.
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>Criterion, please make it into a DVD!
Haunting Tale
A Gripping and haunting tale...Drunk Angel shows the various level human spirit can descend, ascend to and then back again. That even in the worst of us there can be some good. A doctor with a drinking problem tries to save a gangster (Toshiro Mifune) from TB and himself. Along the way a warped on and off friendship develops between the two. As the gangster stuggles with TB he also fights with the urge to make a name for himself as well as defend the only people who ever cared for him. As one reviewer puts it.........who really is the drunk angel?" Buy this movie and decide for yourselves. As usual great performance by Toshiro Mifune and a tale to remember by Kurosawa.
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