Drunken Angel
| Drunken Angel | |
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 Original Japanese theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Produced by | Sojiro Motoki for Toho |
| Written by | Akira Kurosawa Keinosuke Uegusa |
| Starring | Takashi Shimura Toshirō Mifune Reisaburo Yamamoto |
| Music by | Ryoichi Hattori Fumio Hayasaka |
| Cinematography | Takeo Ito |
| Editing by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Distributed by | Toei |
| Release date(s) | April 27, 1948 |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Drunken Angel (酔いどれ天使, Yoidore tenshi?) is a 1948 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It stars Takashi Shimura as an alcoholic doctor in postwar Japan who treats a young, small-time hood named Matsunaga (Toshirō Mifune, in his first role working with Kurosawa), after a gunfight with a rival syndicate. The doctor diagnoses the young gangster with tuberculosis, and convinces him to begin treatment for it. The two enjoy an uneasy friendship until the gangster's former boss is released from prison and seeks to take his gang over once again. The sick young man then stops following the doctor's advice, slips back into old habits and threatens to kill him, while his life is further endangered by his gangster lifestyle.
Kurosawa considered the film to be the first that he was able to direct without interference from government. The film showed Japanese audiences the seamy underworld of Japanese society for the first time. It was also unusual because the star was an anti-hero. Toshirō Mifune's experience in the Japanese army was so recent that he looked the role of a man emaciated from tuberculosis. Although Mifune would go on to become Kurosawa's most popular star, and one of Japan's iconic leading men in film, it was Takashi Shimura who gave Kurosawa a wide range of dramatic performances for films such as Ikiru, Rashomon, and Seven Samurai.
In Drunken Angel, the doctor plays an unsympathetic character to balance the audience's natural affection for doctors against its natural distrust of underworld gangsters. For the film to work the audience must sympathize with the gangster caught in a struggle between his negative lifestyle and his own physical health, which was something new and altogether different for citizens of wartime Japan. At close of the film, Kurosawa blends together the action of a gangster film with the struggle of the individual to break free of his destructive lifestyle. As he was forced to do on previous occasions, Matsunaga must flee — this time from a fight when his progressive illness overcomes him. In his attempt to flee both he and his foe are covered in white paint as they struggle on the floor of an apartment hallway. Matsunaga breaks free but receives a fatal wound just as he bursts through a doorway that symbolizes his escape from his gangster life. Kurosawa uses both dramatic technique from Mifune with new camera angles and musical scoring to highlight the end of Matsunaga's struggle. The film's denouement shows the doctor refusing to allow himself to mourn the death of his patient.
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Background/Production
Censorship issues in Drunken Angel are covered extensively in the supplemental documentary by Danish film scholar Lars-Martin Sorensen, entitled Kurosawa and the Censors, available on The Criterion Collection DVD release of the film.[1] Produced and released during the American occupation in Japan, the Drunken Angel screenplay had to comply with a censorship board issued by the U.S. government. The board did not allow criticism of the occupation to be shown in Japanese films at that time.
Kurosawa slipped several references to the occupation, all of them negative, past the censors. The opening scene of the film features unlicensed prostitutes known as "pan pan" girls, who catered to American soldiers. The gangsters and their girlfriends all wear Westernized clothing and hairstyles. Kurosawa was not allowed to show a burned-out building in his black-market slum set,[2] but he did heavily feature the poisonous bog at the center of the district. English-language signage was also not allowed, but the markets on set have several examples of English usage on their signs. The dance scene in the nightclub features an original composition with lyrics by Kurosawa, satirizing American jazz music.[3] The censorship board was unable to catch these breaches due to overwork and understaffing.[4]
Cast
- Takashi Shimura as Doctor Sanada
- Toshirō Mifune as Matsunaga
- Reisaburo Yamamoto as Okada
- Michiyo Kogure as Nanae
- Chieko Nakakita as Nurse Miyo
References
- ^ The Criterion Collection | Drunken Angel by Akira Kurosawa | Special Features
- ^ From Sorensen's documentary, showing footage of censorship notes written on the Drunken Angel screenplay.
- ^ From the documentary, Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, available on The Criterion Collection DVD.
- ^ From the Sorensen documentary.
External links
- Drunken Angel at the Internet Movie Database
- (Japanese) Drunken Angel at the Japanese Movie Database
- DVD Review: BFI - Region 2 - PAL
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