Akai tenshi (1966)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Yasuzo Masumura

Writers:

Yoriyoshi Arima (novel)
Ryozo Kasahara (writer)

Release Date:

1 July 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | War

Plot:

In 1939, Sakura Nishi is a young army nurse who is sent to the field hospitals in China during the Sino-Japanese war...

Plot Keywords:

Nurse | Amputation | Sino Japanese War | Impotence | Sacrifice

Cast

Ayako Wakao	...	Nurse Sakura Nishi
Shinsuke Ashida	...	Dr. Okabe
Yusuke Kawazu	...	Pvt. Orihara
Ranko Akagi	...	Head Nurse Iwashima
Jotaro Senba	...	Private Sakamoto
Daihachi Kita	...	Private Nogami
Jun Osanai	...	Special Duty Sergeant Major
Daigo Inoue	...	Advance Guard Company's Fifth Chief
Takashi Nakamura	...	Head of infantry
Kenichi Tani	...	Wounded soldier
Kisao Tobita	...	Patient
Naomasa Kawashima	...	Medic
Ayako Ikegami	...	Nurse Tsurusaki
Kyousuke Shiho	...	Chinese Boy
Shin Minatsu	...	Soldier

Also Known As:

Red Angel (USA)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Daiei Studios

Blood, Guts and Nurse Nishi

Red Angel is a very interesting and strange movie which could make the staunchest warmonger into a pacifist with bloody sights that might delight Mexican/American director Robert Rodriguez. A beautiful, sensual nurse named Nishi battles the 1939 war in China and her own repulsion to its inhuman violence by making love to an amputee and falling in love with a drug-addicted doctor. Be ready for the screams of surgery with no anesthetic and the sight of saws being used to cut off limbs. A little soft core, a lot of action, enough blood to make you happy the film is in black and white. Still . . . it's always worthwhile to take a look at the world through another culture's eyes.