The Quiet Duel (1949)

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.

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Kazuo Kikuta (play), Akira Kurosawa

Stars:

Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Miki Sanjô

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Toshirô Mifune	...	Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki
Takashi Shimura	...	Dr. Konosuke Fujisaki
Miki Sanjô	...	Misao Matsumoto
Kenjirô 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

Storyline

In 1944, in WWII, Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki cuts his finger with the scalpel during a surgery in a field hospital and is infected by spirochete from his patient Susumu Nakada. After the blood test, he realizes that he has contracted syphilis, but he does not have the necessary medicine to treat the disease. He advises Nakada to seek medical treatment for his disease. In 1946, after the war, he breaks off his six years engagement with his beloved fiancée Misao Matsumoto but he does not tell the truth but lets her go and find another man to get married. The hopeless apprentice, nurse Rui Minegishi, witnesses Kioji injecting Salvarsan to treat his syphilis, and first she misunderstands why the doctor is sick. Later, after discovering the truth about his disease, she changes her behavior and becomes the confident listener of the doctor's inner feelings. When Kyoji accidentally meets Nakada in the police station of his town and finds that his wife is pregnant, he warns the reckless man about the ...

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Plot Keywords:

doctor | syphilis | nurse | field hospital | surgeon | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was the first film Kurosawa directed outside of Toho, as it was a co-production between Daiei Studios and the newly formed Art Film Association, of which Kurosawa was a founding member.

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Quotes

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

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Soundtracks

Bengawan Solo
Written by Gesang
(uncredited)
The melody's heard in the police station when Fujisaki talked to Nakata

User Reviews

Great work but some refinement could have made a perfect gem out of it

Another great drama by the great director with a lot of complicated but thought-provoking issues to think about.

Mifune was amazing playing a silent character who is suffering a lot from the inside but has a strong prudent heart to not to cause hurt towards others, and the supporting cast especially the nurse were great. I also liked that this film chose an unusual way (in a sense an unorthodox way as compared to other films) to not let the sufferer reveal the whole truth to people important to him even though it might have been better that way, because that is a real Asian behaviour.

The main problem I find with this film is that the first two-thirds of the film seem to have inconsistencies in its flow of plot that sort of distorted the perception of the relationships between the important characters, and things only really start to hasten and intensify during the last fraction of the film. This is okay as a story but if the flow is more refined it could have looked a little less awkward.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

30 November 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Quiet Duel

Filming Locations:

Daiei Studios, Tokyo, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Daiei Studios, Daiei, Film Art Association

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1