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20 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
In my top ten favorites of Kurosawa; under-rated (or maybe under-seen), 31 July 2005
10/10
Author: JackGattanella from United States

Considering this is the first collaboration between one of the 'heavyweight' director/star combos in cinema (tops in the Japanese film world, probably their equal to America's Scorsese/De Niro), this is quite a powerhouse of drama. That's not to say it's a completely dour film- some of Akira Kurosawa's trademark ironic (and subtle) humor is laced into scenes. But more-over, Kurosawa made here an important film for its time. While the team of Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune would become even more internationally known for the thrilling Japanese mystery Stray Dog, and the masterpiece Rashomon, this film seems to get a little under-looked by Kurosawa fans (at least those that haven't quite dug into the catalog of their work). Is it their very best? Not quite, but it ranks high up there for me.

And it's not just the collaboration of the director and the star- there is also the co-star, Takashi Shimura, who has made his great mark on many of Kurosawa's films (the two I mentioned previous, plus his best role in Ikiru, and Seven Samurai as well). He plays a doctor who can't quite lay off the booze, even as he tries to help the people around him who seem to be contracting all sorts of bad diseases from the contaminated water (most notably tuberculosis). Mifune plays a member of the Yakuza crime gang, but is more of just a low level thug than a real 'somebody'. He's getting signs of TB, and goes to the 'good' doctor, who refuses help to the Yakuza, having outright contempt for them. Through the course of the film, The two actors portray these people as fragile, intense, hostile, compassionate, and with all the great emotional impact that comes in Japanese dramas.

While one might want to check this out for the context of the Yakuza part of the plot (which was one reason I wanted to check it out- not the Yakuza in today's Japanese cinema of course), the side that Kurosawa shows wonderfully in a film like Red Beard is also brought to light here. There's some action, but it gets thrown into a larger, more emotional context as Mifune's character starts to deteriorate. It becomes very theatrical in a sense, but there is also the realism that Kurosawa had on his sleeve, one that he had to express in post-war Japan (many of these post-war images are better expressed in Stray Dog, but he gives some ample time here too in a subtler, more dangerous context). So this mix comes together, and it turns into one hell of a picture. It may feel a little on the weak side compared to some of Kurosawa's magnum opuses (Seven Samurai, Ran, Yojimbo come to mind). Yet it ranks as an important point in the careers of the actors and director, and it contains enough great moments, enough in terms of the position of the camera and the often shattering music, to make it an under-rated (perhaps minor) classic. Personally, I loved it- especially the last twenty minutes.

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12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
A strong reflection of the morals of man, 4 September 1999
8/10
Author: bill (alex9989@aol.com) from buffalo, ny

A very, very vivid film from Japanese legend, Akira Kurosawa. The Japanese town that is the setting for "Drunken Angel" is vividly captured by Kurosawa, and the filthy swamp that separates the doctor from the filthiness of the town is brilliant. Toshiro Mifune plays a tuberculosis stricken gangster who is slowly won over, despite his vicious pride, by the caring but sarcastic doctor. The swamp is a reflection of the corruption in the town and in one of the first scenes a group of children are seen playing in it. Kurosawa's way of foreshadowing these children's future since the town is controlled by the immoral gangsters. With the arrival of Okadu, a released convict and gangster, and struggles with his health, Mifune struggles through conflicts of soul which are brilliantly metaphored by Kurosawa. A great drama with some brilliant commentary about post-WW2 Japan. Solid characters carry with film about typical with the Doctor being an unforgettable creation and Toshiro Mifune giving a powerful performance.

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9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Great movie ... where's the DVD?, 20 September 2006
9/10
Author: Irradiata from Toronto, Ontario

I loved this movie for many reasons:

The film history : it's the first collaboration between Akira Kurosawa (director) and Toshiro Mifune (actor) that continued through 15 more films including the sublime Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Yojimbo.

The style : it's a great film noir with gangsters, zoot suits, speakeasy's, gambling etc.,

The history : post WW II Japan is a frightening place with rubble, raw sewage, crime and hope. It's a world I hadn't seen before.

Toshiro Mifune : What an amazing actor. He oozes charisma and you cannot take your eyes off of him. His performance reminded me of the first time I saw Russell Crowe, in a little seen mediocre movie called "For the Moment" which I watched many times because of Crowe's intensity.

My only problem is the copy I saw was terrible. The print was faded and half of the subtitles were illegible. When will this be released on DVD? It's not Kurosawa's best film, but it's certainly better than most of the drivel out there.

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10 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Another classic from arguably the greatest filmmaker of all time., 3 November 1998
10/10
Author: Alan Hays from Jackson, Ms

Drunken Angel is another classic from arguably the greatest filmmaker of all-time. The story revolves around a petty gangster (Toshiro Mifune), who contracts TB and the Doctor (Takashi Shimura) who attempts to treat him despite the gangster's foolish pride. Mifune and Shimura, Kurosawa regulars, are brilliant in their respective roles. Kurosawa takes on film noir as well as any auteurs of his time. This is a must see for Kurosawa fans.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Good early start!, 7 January 2008
8/10
Author: stalker vogler from Xanadu

This movie is very important for a number of reasons: it marks the beginning of the prolific collaboration between Mifune and Kurosawa, it is the first film the director made without interference from the studios and it is not a "typical" Kurosawa film as many seem to think at his samurai movies.

I must say I have a thing for the master's earlier project, such as this one, Stray Dog and his masterpieces Rashomon and Ikiru, movies that I come back to from time to time. Drunken Angel is interesting because it takes some of the elements of gangster and noir, combining them with some neorealist elements into a unique Japoneese blend. As such the movie is a drama of change, since it was shot in the intense atmosphere of post-WWII Japan. We are dealing with a thug played marvelously by Mifune who is diagnosed with TB but is reluctant to face the fact he's going to die soon. At the same time we have him as a member of the Yakuza who believes in a code of honor even if he may be one of the last to believe in that code.

It's hard to understand the poignancy of this message today but when Kurosawa made the movie it was very relevant, Mifune's character is unable to understand the proximity of his own death because he is unable to stand up to it and on the other hand he clings to past ideals in which nobody but him still believes. His only friend is a "drunken angel", a doctor who is torn between his duty to fight the disease of his patient and his own problems with facing a cruel reality.

The metaphor of the swamp is also very interesting and marks a beginning of Kurosawa's use of landscape to develop a story. There is also the symbolism of water present only it's not yet as meaningful as in Rashomon

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Friendship, Code of Honor, Dirtiness and Choices, 14 April 2009
8/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In the post-war WWII Tokyo, the Yakuza gangster Matsunaga (Toshirô Mifune) seeks the alcoholic Doctor Sanada (Takashi Shimura) to remove a bullet from his hand, and he warns Matsunaga that he has tuberculosis and needs treatment. The bully Matsunaga keeps his arrogant position of tough Yakuza leader in a troubled relationship with Dr. Sanada, but follows his recommendation and stops drinking and smoking. When the former boss Okada (Reisaburo Yamamoto) is released from prison, Matsunaga starts drinking and smoking again with his Okada and his illness worsens. Later Okada threatens Dr. Sanada and his nurse Miyo (Chieko Nakakita) and Matsunaga decides to meets the Yakuza boss invoking their code of honor to help the physician; however, he finds that he is expendable in the underworld where he once ruled.

"Yoidore Tenshi" is one of the first works of the master Akira Kurosawa and the first point that calls the attention in 2009 is the destroyed and soiled Tokyo, surrounded by illness, corruption and open sewage reflecting the poor condition of the after war Japan and their society. The pessimist story is centered in an alcoholic medical doctor and a tubercular gangster, and they have these conditions due to wrong choices in their past. The Yakuza Code of Honor is destroyed with the lack of respect to Matsunaga, who would be sacrificed in a confrontation with the rival Kitajima. However the movie has a hopeful conclusion with the recovering of the seventeen year-old girl. The fate of the gangster Okada is not clear, but I presume he was sent back to prison for killing Matsunaga. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Anjo Embriagado" ("The Drunken Angel")

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
The recurring theme of this movie is great, 1 April 2004
Author: LyQuid from Toronto

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The theme that is shown in the movie is that people sacrifice things for stupid reasons even when they know the consequences of those sacrifices are deep.

* Please note that there are some spoilers in this quick review *

There are several instances of this during the movie Drunken Angel.

The main character ( Tishiro Mifune ) continually decides to sacrifice his life by not acknowledging his condition. He also sacrifices himself somewhat to his former boss who just got released from jail. He introduced his girlfriend at the time, to open the door for the new boss's approval, yet sealing his own fate by doing so. All of this is settled by a beautiful climax at the end, wonderfully choreographed by Kurosawa and his crew, and well acted by actors. Particularly the scene when the door opens to the sun.

Other characters displayed pointless sacrifices as well. Such as the Doctor who mentioned he was careless as a younger student, for such things as women. His Treating of gangsters, which somewhat goes against what he believes in as well. But he is at a point where he contrasts those past mistakes by the good natured sacrifices he makes during the movie, one such was standing up for his friend.

Nanou, the girlfriend of the Gangster, made a decision based on gangster politics, to better herself. This may also be seen as a part of the story which adds to the overall theme.

Even the friend of the Doctor out of fear wishes to greet the released gangster, even though she has been abused by him before.

The theme itself is directly mentioned a few times ( Why do we continue to sacrifice ourselves for silly things? ) by the Leading character ( doctor ), who also gave a great performance in Ikiru.

I hope viewers of this movie appreciate Kurosawa's message here as much as I did.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Odd but fascinating film, 19 July 2006
8/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

This is a strange film about a very committed but screwed up doctor in post-war Japan. The doctor lives in the slums of Tokyo and is amazed at the filth and widespread incidence of preventable diseases among the poor. While this is an important cause to him, so is getting drunk and screwing up his life. However, the doctor meets a young hoodlum, played by Toshiro Mifune, and he treats him even when the guy insists everything is just fine! And, at times afterwards, Mifune alternates from being thankful and decent to being belligerent and completely antisocial. Throughout the film, the doctor works hard to keep this unlikable character alive--despite it seeming pretty obvious that Mifune has a death wish. A fascinating and odd story about the relationship between two very oddly matched men.

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
"Drinking? You don't want to be cured!", 15 October 2006
8/10
Author: nora_nettlerash from Ruritania

Kurosawa began his career as a jobbing director, making the pictures the studio wanted him to in conventional, by-the-book style. It was with Drunken Angel, his eighth film, that he turned a corner. He regarded it as the first film that was really his, and typically here combining bold social commentary with tender sympathy towards flawed and downtrodden characters.

This also marks the beginning of one of the greatest actor-director relationships in the history of cinema, with the young Toshiro Mifune making his debut for Kurosawa. It is amazing how naturally talented an actor Mifune was. He already knew exactly how to move in front of the camera, and could convey so much with the tiniest of gestures. However, he doesn't get to show off his full range here. Also, in the leading role, is Kurosawa regular and fantastic character actor Takashi Shimura. There isn't really one bad performance in the whole thing.

Drunken Angel is essentially a lament for the state of post-war Japanese society. Not only does the story concern the victims of that era, it is also an extended allegory using illness and contamination as a metaphor for the state of the nation. The central characters – a tubercular gangster (Mifune) and an alcoholic doctor (Shimura) – are partly to blame for their own conditions, and while they want to get better haven't the willpower to do so. The pond of stagnant water outside the doctor's surgery, a constantly recurring image of despair, seems to be the result of a bomb crater from the war.

The plot structure is episodic and bitty, somewhat reminiscent of neo-realist cinema. Unfortunately this makes the whole thing a bit lacking in pace and even boring in places. Things really start to pick up in the second half of the film when the plot starts to come together. The introduction of Okada, a gangland boss who has just finished a stint in prison, adds an element of danger to what has so far only been a gloomy drama.

Music is a constant presence in Drunken Angel, with diagetic music (i.e. really there in the scene rather than a background score) being used to give atmosphere and introduce characters. A whole variety of tunes are heard blasting from bars and dance halls, but most memorable of all is a man who sits outside the surgery playing a dismal Japanese folk melody on an acoustic guitar. This acts like a theme tune for the doctor. However, when Okada appears he takes the guitar and announces his presence by playing a doom-laden classical piece. This seems to have been a major influence on Sergio Leone, particularly on the character of Harmonica in his Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

It is in the final act of this picture that Kurosawa reveals his talent for deeply sentimental and emotional direction. I won't reveal exactly what happens, but as the film looks set to reach a tense finale (in what is the only proper action sequence) Kurosawa turns it on its head, using expert timing, camera-work, cross-cutting and Fumio Hayasaka's score to produce a scene of incredible poignancy. Another Kurosawa trademark which is established here was his way of injecting a little note of hope into the ending of his darker pessimistic pictures, with the final scene suggesting there may be a cure for this sick society.

Despite all these developments in Kurosawa's style, he was not quite yet ready to turn out a masterpiece. In some ways he seems to have simply crammed every idea he had at the time into the 95 minutes. There is even a dream sequence in which Mifune smashes open a coffin is chased by a zombie version of himself. This hints towards Kurosawa's later horror-tinged work and a similar but better done scene in Kagemusha (1980), but here it seems a little clichéd and very much at odds with the overall tone of the film. Drunken Angel has its moments and is packed with good elements, which is why I rate it as highly as I do, but as a whole it doesn't come together enough to really suck the viewer in.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
An underrated but surprisingly amazing film, 21 April 2009
Author: Jag85 from London, United Kingdom

This movie was a big surprise for me. I watched this movie yesterday expecting it to be one of Akira Kurosawa's weaker films, but it ended up being my second-favourite Kurosawa film after Seven Samurai. All the other Kurosawa films I've seen were set in feudal Japan, so it was quite refreshing to see one set in post-war Japan for a change. While Kurosawa's other movies had a major impact on the samurai genre, Drunken Angel was arguably the earliest example of a Yakuza film.

Unlike the other Kurosawa movies I've seen, I found Drunken Angel gripping from the moment it began. Despite the film being shorter than the other Kurosawa films I've seen as well, the character development was very impressive and the ending was powerful. Being Toshiro Mifune's first major role, he obviously looks younger and hasn't yet developed his unique acting mannerisms. That's a good thing though, as it makes him seem like a completely different person in this movie. His portrayal of the Yakuza thug Matsunaga was impressive and very moving. The star of the movie though is Takashi Shimura (another veteran actor of Kurosawa movies), who plays the forward-thinking Dr. Sanada. His sarcastic dialogues in particular were excellent, without feeling clichéd at all.

I think it's a real shame this movie isn't so famous like Kurosawa's other movies, but I found this film incredibly moving and it is now my second-favourite Kurosawa film of all time after Seven Samurai.

9/10

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