Drunken Angel : Akira Kurosawa

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When I was reading Kurosawa’s autobiography [1982], I was so enthusiastic to know what he wrote about Mifune. When I came to know that how Akira along with Yama-san selected Toshiro for Toho studio, I was totally amazed that he opined:

 

“Mifune had a kind of talent I had never encountered before in the Japanese film world. It was, above all, the speed with which he expressed himself that was astounding. “

 



In 1948 he made Drunken Angel with Mifune as a gangster and when I started watching the movie, I was surprised to notice Takashi Shimura’a acting skills which had been lacking when I watched Rashomon & Seven Samurai. They acted like a magnificent duo in Japanese cinema.

 

The recurrent projections of damp swamp with Matsunaga’s TB conditions and their link up with the destitution of women status in the movie reflected well the post-war dilapidations of social structure.

 

The dedication and sacrifice of Doctor Sanada [Takashi] for gangster Matsunaga [Toshiro] is just mesmerizing and the deep structure of the story is so uplifting that no film lover can ignore the philosophical basis of the movie.

 

Drunken Angel [1948]

 (醉いどれ天使 [Japanese]

Akira Kurosawa

Japanese, Japan

 

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