Drunken Angel
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Drunken Angel is a 1948 Japanese yakuza film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It is notable for being the first of sixteen film collaborations between director Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune.
Plot
Sanada (Takashi Shimura) is an alcoholic doctor, a drunken angel, in postwar Japan who treats a somewhat young, small-time hood named Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune), after a gunfight with a rival syndicate. The doctor diagnoses the young gangster with tuberculosis. He convinces Matsunaga to begin treatment and quit boozing and womanizing. The two enjoy an uneasy friendship until the gangster's former boss, Okada, who is also the abusive ex-boyfriend of the doctor's female assistant, is released from prison and seeks to take his gang over once again. In the meantime, Sanada continues treating his other patients, one of whom seems to be making progress against tuberculosis.
Matsunaga then stops following the doctor's advice, slipping back into old drinking habits and going to night clubs with Okada. Matsunaga realizes that Okada is not a true friend when Okada threatens to kill the doctor if he doesn't reveal a female assistant's whereabouts. Matsunaga then finds out that his Yakuza boss is grooming Okada and merely using Matsunaga as a pawn to be sacrificed against the rival gang.
The doctor leaves his house to report Okada to the police, and despite the doctor's orders to remain in bed Matsunaga slips out to confront Okada. Okada has also managed to steal Matsunaga's girlfriend Nanae who has left him due to his failing health. Matsunaga is killed in the ensuing knife fight with Okada, after losing the upper hand due to his condition. A local shop-owner woman who had feelings for Matsunaga plans to take Matsunaga's ashes to be buried on her farm, where she had offered to live with him. At the same time, the doctor, the drunken angel, learns that one of his younger patients had followed his advice and has been fully cured of tuberculosis.
Cast
- Takashi Shimura as Doctor Sanada
- Toshiro Mifune as Matsunaga
- Reisaburo Yamamoto as Okada
- Michiyo Kogure as Nanae
- Chieko Nakakita as Nurse Miyo
- Eitarō Shindō as Takahama
- Noriko Sengoku as Gin
- Shizuko Kasagi as Singer
- Masao Shimizu as Oyabun
- Yoshiko Kuga as Schoolgirl
