The Quiet Duel (1949) Shizukanaru kettô (original title)

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Akira Kurosawa (writer)
Kazuo Kikuta (play)
(more)

Release Date:

30 November 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A surgeon gets syphilis from a patient when he cuts himself during an operation. The doctor's life is destroyed, but unlike the patient, he doesn't destroy others along with him.

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Syphilis | Nurse | Surgeon | Glass Table

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Toshirô Mifune	...	Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki
Takashi Shimura	...	Dr. Konosuke Fujisaki
Miki Sanjô	...	Misao Matsumoto
Kenjiro Uemura	...	Susumu Nakada
Chieko Nakakita	...	Takiko Nakada
Noriko Sengoku	...	Apprentice Nurse Rui Minegishi
Jyonosuke Miyazaki	...	Cpl. Horiguchi
Isamu Yamaguchi	...	Patrolman Nosaka
Shigeru Matsumoto	...	Boy with appendicitis
Hiroko Machida	...	Nurse Imai
Kan Takami	...	Laborer
Kisao Tobita	...	Boy with typhoid
Shigeyuki Miyajima	...	Officer
Tadashi Date	...	Father of boy with appendicitis
Etsuko Sudo	...	Mother of boy with appendicitis
Seiji Izumi	...	Policeman
Masateru Sasaki	...	Old Soldier
Kenichi Miyajima	...	Dealer
Yosuke Kudo	...	Boy
Yakuko Ikegami	...	Gaudy Woman
Wakayo Matsumura	...	Student Nurse
Hatsuko Wakahara	...	Mii-chan

Directed by
Akira Kurosawa

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kazuo Kikuta		play
Akira Kurosawa		writer
Senkichi Taniguchi		writer

Produced by
Hisao Ichikawa	....	producer
Sôjirô Motoki	....	producer

Original Music by
Akira Ifukube

Cinematography by
Sôichi Aisaka

Film Editing by
Masanori Tsujii

Art Direction by
Koichi Imai

Sound Department
Mitsuo Hasegawa	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Tsunekichi Shibata	....	lighting technician
Isamu Shima	....	still photographer

Production Companies

• Daiei Motion Picture Company
• Daiei Studios
• Film Art Association

Distributors

• Daiei Motion Picture Company (1949) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Brandon Films (1979) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• trigon-film (2011) (Switzerland) (theatrical) (German speaking)
• BCI Eclipse (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Brentwood Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Jesnet (2009) (Japan) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (all media)
• Ronin Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• trigon-film (2011) (Austria) (all media)
• trigon-film (2011) (Germany) (all media)
• trigon-film (2011) (Luxembourg) (all media) (German speaking)
• trigon-film (2011) (Switzerland) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"Shizukanaru kettô" - Japan (original title)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:12 (2007) | Australia:M

Company:

Daiei Motion Picture Company

Trivia:

The Quiet Duel (1949) came in seventh on Kinema Jumpo's list of the Top Ten Films of 1949.

Quotes:

Dr. Konosuke Fujisaki:If he had been happy, he might have become just a snob.

well-acted melodrama that isn't one of Kurosawa's best

Every Akira Kurosawa film is at least interesting, and even in a work like The Quiet Duel, which is designed possible as something of a 'minor' work in the director's cannon, there's things about it that are striking and exceptional. The opening scene of the doctor, played by Toshiro Mifune, operating on the patient who will change his life forever, has a double-sided tension to it about not just the fate of the operation but of something else (this helps if you don't know what is going to happen). The way the scene is cut, the effect of the rain outside, the pan at the floor, the rain falling on the pan and making the one louder sound, it all amounts of a near-classic Kurosawa scene. This and the climax are, arguably, the best scenes of what is otherwise a good if shaky melodrama.

The problem might just be that I'm not tuned into this tearjerker side of Kurosawa, at least one that isn't as well-cooked, so to speak, as some of his best efforts. The premise is really good, as a doctor contracts syphilis by a mistake while operating on a patient during the war, and has to treat himself with medicine and cannot find a way to tell his to-be wife about his ailment (or, in fact, why he cannot marry). And saying that this isn't entirely 'well-cooked' is to say that the premise, while fascinating, doesn't entirely develop into a fully fascinating story. There are patches that seem to kind of coast, like something one might see on day-time television (not quite soap opera but close), and it's only in the last third that things really start to pick up dramatically.

Thankfully, Mifune is on his A-game as usual with his best collaborator at the helm, particularly in a scene where he (uncharacteristically for Kurosawa) breaks down in tears after seeing his once-possible-wife off to marry someone else, and there's a strange, cool mixture of musical instruments on the soundtrack- not quite what one would expect for a melodrama (i.e. xylophone, harmonica, harps, accordions). By the climax, as I said, it gets very good with the original patient Takata coming back in a drunken, syphilis-infected frenzy to the hospital. It just isn't enough, overall, to recommend it as highly as Kurosawa's best; Red Beard and Drunken Angel, also starring Mifune, are much better as medical/hospital dramas. 7.5/10