Drunken Angel
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| 酔いどれ天使 Drunken Angel |
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 Original Japanese poster |
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| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Produced by | Sojiro Motoki |
| Written by | Akira Kurosawa Keinosuke Uegusa |
| Starring | Takashi Shimura Toshirô Mifune Reisaburo Yamamoto |
| Music by | Ryoichi Hattori Fumio Hayasaka |
| Cinematography | Takeo Ito |
| Distributed by | Brandon Films Inc. |
| Release date(s) | April 27, 1948 |
| Running time | 98 min. |
| Language | Japanese |
| IMDb profile | |
Drunken Angel is the English title for 酔いどれ天使 (Yoidore Tenshi), a 1948 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa.
Starring Takashi Shimura as an alcoholic doctor in postwar Japan who treats a young, small-time hood named Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune, in his first role working with Kurosawa), after a gunfight with a rival syndicate. The doctor diagnoses the young gangster's 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, and slips back into habits that threaten to kill him, while his life is further endangered by his gangster lifestyle.
Kurosawa considered the film to be the first that was he was able to direct without interference from government. It is still remarkable in many respects; for instance, it showed Japanese audiences the seamy underworld of Japanese society for the first time. It was also unusual because the star was an anti-hero. Toshiro 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 of film, it was Takashi Shimura that would give Kurosawa the wide range of dramatic performance for such films as Ikiru, Rashomon, and the Seven Samurai.
In Drunken Angel, the doctor plays an especially unsympathetic character to balance the audience's natural affection for doctors against its natural distrust of underworld gangsters. For Drunken Angel 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 dénouement shows the doctor refusing to allow himself to mourn the death of his patient.
Look also for examples in the film where Kurosawa uses silence to heighten the drama; today's audiences may mistake the silence for a bad splice, but it is one of Kurosawa’s techniques.
When Drunken Angel is referenced in documentaries on Kurosawa or Japanese film, the scenes that appear most often are the night club scene with Matsunaga dancing despite his tuberculosis while popular Japanese singer Shizuko Kasagi sings "Jungle Boogie," and the closing scene where Matsunaga meets his dramatic demise.
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| Japanese Cinema |  |
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| Films directed by Akira Kurosawa | ||
| 1940s | Sanshiro Sugata | The Most Beautiful | Sanshiro Sugata Part II | The Men Who Tread On the Tiger's Tail | Those Who Make Tomorrow | No Regrets for Our Youth | One Wonderful Sunday | Drunken Angel | The Quiet Duel | Stray Dog | |
|---|---|---|
| 1950s | Scandal | Rashomon | The Idiot | Ikiru | Seven Samurai | I Live in Fear | Throne of Blood | The Lower Depths | The Hidden Fortress | |
| 1960s | The Bad Sleep Well | Yojimbo | Sanjuro | High and Low | Red Beard | |
| 1970s | Dodesukaden | Dersu Uzala | |
| 1980s | Kagemusha | Ran | |
| 1990s | Dreams | Rhapsody in August | Madadayo | |
