Review of Drunken Angel (1948) by Alex S — 15 Feb 2009

Something tells me I should have liked this more for its impact on postwar Japanese cinema than its story but neither of those elements really had much weight in my mind. Granted, Kurosawa tackles the then timely issues of TB and Japan's identity crisis after WWII but for my money, this is all about the debut collaboration of Kurosawa's go-to man, Toshiro Mifune.

He plays a gangster with a life-threatening disease who aims to rebound in life with the help of an alcoholic doctor (semi-regular Takashi Shimura) who struggles to find meaning in his occupation. You could say they are both "guardian angels" for each other but the title is "Drunken Angel" and out doctor has a lot to work through.

Gangsters fight, girls cry, a literal cesspool of hatred sits in the center of it all and for some strange reason, it all feels like there could have been so much more here. Mifune steals the show and Kurosawa sharpens his teachings for bigger and better.

By no means a bad film, but by no means an exceptional one.