Yoidiro Tenshi
The Drunken Angel
1948

directed by
Akira Kurosawa



A movie about a noble doctor, just like Redbeard. No problem per se. Kurosawa himself seems to have loved this one, but it's much too superstitious to my taste: "Will power will conquer every problem." Sorry, but it just ain't so. Strange enough, in a movie like High and Low Kurosawa seems to realize this quite well; to me, it's one main theme of that movie. Later, in Dersu Usala and Dreams he comes out with exactly the same nonsense again. I'll just quote a line or two and leave it at that.

Girl: Will power can cure TB, can't it?
Doctor: It can cure all human ailments.

Now, really. That's the final dialogue!

There is skeptical doubt in the movie, but to find it you'll have to see it. It's still worth it.
A funny thing here is that in 1949 Kurosawa ran into trouble with The Quiet Duel because, then,
he wanted to have Mifune go insane from syphilis, which medical experts agreed was not possible.
Looking at guys like Idi Amin and Henry VIII, you might well wonder what those doctors knew, anyway.

This movie has been compared to Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves because of its "neo-realism".
To my taste, Stray Dog comes much closer to that one, if only because of the plot resemblance.






Produced by Toho Co. Ltd.
Japan 1948

98 minutes, B/W, Academy screen

It should come as no real surprise that in 2005 director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio announced having a re-make of Drunken Angel in the works. Hollywood is almost as superstitious as you can get while remaining functional. Functional after a fashion only, that is. We await their efforts with unbated breaths.
As far as I can find out, the project fell through.

Credits:		Cast:
producer screenplay photographed art director lighting music by	Shojiro Motoki Keinosuke Uegasa Akira Kurosawa Takeo Ito So Matsuyama Kinzo Yoshijawa Fumbio Hayasaka	Sanada, the doctor Matsunaga, the gangster Okada, the gang-boss Miyo, the nurse Nanae, Matsunaga's mistress Gin, the bar girl Takahama, the doctor's friend The old servant	Takashi Shimura Toshiro Mifune Reisaburo Yamamoto Chieko Nakakita Michiyo Kogure Noriko Sengoku Eitaro Sindo Choko Iida

more on




SEARCH this site or the Web





copyright notice
all material on this site, except where noted
copyright © by , curaçao
reproduction in any form for any purpose is prohibited
without prior consent in writing