Review of Drunken Angel (1948) by Byron B — 13 Nov 2018

I saw this at Cleveland's Cinematheque shortly before the new documentary Mifune: The Last Samurai. I have seen many of Kurosawa's classic jidai-geki, samurai films, but this is only the second gendai-geki of his I've seen, dealing with contemporary life and in this case Yakuza life.

As Kurosawa developed his film career in the post-war years he gradually built a crew of constant collaborators around him. This is the first time Toshirô Mifune starred. Takashi Shimura is also a regular, the title character in fact, and it is always a pleasure to watch his performances.

The interplay between a grouchy, drunken doctor, with a heart of gold and a prideful, macho tuberculosis patient whose status in this world is not as fixed as he wishes create plenty of drama. There is great symbolism in the swamp in the middle of the town where all sorts of garbage is dumped.

It separates the part of town where the doctor lives from the downtown market area. It is completely appropriate for a post-war Japanese city in recovery despite many hints of American influence from the west.

Even for a film relatively early in Kurosawa's career the writing, camerawork, score, editing, and of course direction bringing it all together is consistently great.