Drunken Angel

But then again my girlfriend chose it. Judging by the fact that she stopped watching it half way through I guess it wasn't her sort of thing too. Old films can be tough to watch at the best of times but old foreign language films even harder. I do like M though.... Hmmm gonna add that to the list!

You will already see from the other reviews that this is an early Kurosawa film using two of his favourite actors together for the first time. Yes it is a good film and you do not have to be a dyed in the wool fan to appreciate the style and quality of this exceptional Director and his gifted cast.

Whilst Toshiro Mifune had played a Gang Boss before, his interaction with the kindly but straight talking Doctor Sanada (Takashi Shimura) made for a screen duo interaction that was to last for over a decade. The Villain, the Henchmen, the Girlfriends and the Nurse all wove together a tragic yet simple story of Japanese city folk that was a pleasure to watch.

The music was haunting, the scenes of seedy backstreets and smelly streams combined with a script that has a social conscience made for an overall cinematic experience.

The lighting and photography is excellent for its time (over sixty years ago) and its simple message is still true today. The plot is played at three levels, all interconnecting and then splitting again.

Well worth the money and I am glad that I saw it!

Kurosawa /Mifune.. it must be good?

I'm sure this film has a lot to offer the film historian /critic but this film just did not hit the spot for me.

The drunken (doctor) angel (Takashi Shimura) was a bit over the top with his performance and some scenes were quite silly/corny.

Director Akira Kurosawa sometimes tries to do too much and perhaps lacks the subtlety of Ozu / Masumura.

1948; evidently poor film stock; far from the beginning of Kurosawa's career as a director, but earlier than his best known films ... yet of all of his work that I have seen, this has impressed me most.

There always seems to be a slightly disturbing underlay of relentless ferocity in Kurosawa's films and characters - to which I have never quite managed to accommodate - but what particularly struck me here was that there was a compassionate ambiguity or complexity in flawed, and sometimes violent, characters which sets this film above the others. (It is always encouraging to be shown that you are not the only person with failings and weaknesses, but also potentials ...!) There is no need to elaborate on the plot, of a good doctor who has taken to drink, who loses his temper and shouts rather often, who is poised perilously on the lowest rung of his profession, who is yet essentially goodwilled and selfless, trying to pull together a violent, hopelessly misdirected and doomed yakuza, who, of course dies in the end. I assume that we are seeing an authentic view of a section of Japanese society ... and beside the two principal characters we have women. who display sensibility and sense. Given Kurosawa's skill in cutting and pacing a film this one is a striking experience.

As so often, it is worth remarking that this film is almost certainly more effective in black and white , despite quality of the film stock and so on, than I think it could ever be in colour. Just as few directors can really use a wide screen - and then only for the sort of scenery that may justify it - so not so many directors as apparently believe they can manage to overcome the distracting realism of colour when they are exploring complex stories.Too often, the eye is beguiled away by irrelevant details ... perhaps there should be more films shot deliberately in black and white, even now!

A so-so movie story-wise, and not one of Kurosawa's better directorial efforts, visually speaking. But Mifune and Shimura are terrific. I think it's my favourite interplay between the two. Just the way the two walk says everything you need to know about their characters. You can almost feel them in the room with you.