MUBI

Drunken Angel is an important movie in many ways. It is Tishoro Mifune’s debut film as well as the first in which Shimura and Mifune have acted together. Most importantly, this is Kurosawa’s take on the American film noir genre which, in a way, highlights the soft corner that he had for Hollywood; for which he was often criticized by other Japanese directors as well as the audience. It is safe to say though, that Kurosawa’s Drunken Angel, not only redefined the film noir genre but also made American film noir biggies look like midgets in comparison.

Drunken Angel is an oxymoron and so are the various characters and locations in this movie. The credits roll out at the beginning of the movie against a back drop of a garbage infested pond devoid of life but right beside this pond stays a doctor who seems to save lives. There is also the guitarist who plays soft melodious music beside this obnoxious pond that strangely appears beautiful in the moonlight with the music playing in the background. Then comes the doctor himself played by Takashi Shimura. He is the Drunken Angel; blunt in his criticism but honest to his work. Although he has taken to his bottle(not even sparing the alcohol for anesthesia), he advocates a rational approach to everything because in his opinion, it can not only cure diseases but also other problems in life. The person who fails to understand this is the other protagonist played by Tishoro Mifune; A dapper yakuza who is in charge of a certain area of a Tokyo slum in which our doctor also happens to live. Although tough and arrogant externally, he appears to have a conscience that seems to suggest that he still has hope for a better life.

It is the meeting of these two oxymoron’s that generates fireworks, which are unarguably the strength of this movie. The doctor hurls abuses as well as other objects at the yakuza for being stupid and not paying heed to his health. He diagnoses a life threatening disease which the yakuza isn’t ready to believe initially and literally bashes the doctor just short of serious physical harm. The doctor doesn’t pay any heed to this and continues to provoke the yakuza who cant help but control his anger against the doctor who is always right.

This movie ends up becoming a character study of these two protagonists. There are other characters that fit the bill and the whole movie effectively traces the important tenets of the film noir genre but it is Kurosawa’s use of metaphorical images and the strength of his character actors that makes this a genre defining film. Takashi Shimura delivers a performance that I personally consider his finest. Finally, what can I say about the debutant Mifune? Many actors would have given up their lives to deliver such a performance even in their final films.

Note: Look out for the raunchy cabaret number in this movie. Mifune shows us some mean dancing moves with an attitude that could have humbled the likes of Presley, MJ and Travolta!

Akira Kurosawa’s complex treatment of the two lead characters in Drunken Angel (1948), Doctor Sanada (Takashi Shimura) and gangster Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune), is detailed, thoughtful and effective portrayal of the post-war Tokyo devastated by the perils of the ‘useless’ war. At first, I didn’t know this was Toshiro’s debut film. Even didn’t know this was first film of the lead duo together. But Takashi’s fatherlike character of Kambei in The Seven Samurai (1954) was in my mind even while watching this film. (Seven Samurai was my first Kurosawa film.) Toshiro foreshadows Kikuchiyo in this film. “Matsunaga is a violent hoodlum humanized by his fear of death, which lies just underneath the swaggering surface.” However, I’m familiar with the complicated archetype (both Matsunaga and the doctor were based on real-life people). It is but Dr Sanada, whose character is too complex to comprehend without a detailed analysis and study of the socio-political background of his ‘time’.

‘Yakuza honour’ was something greek to me, something Masaki Kobayashi effectively dissected, albeit in case of the daimyos (feudal lords) who kept Samurai those days, in Seppuko (1962). But its origin and the social/political connections continuing to modern day Japan was something I’d not anticipated to exist even today! Matsunaga, imperious at first, is reduced to a marionette after his old boss Okada (Reizaburo Yamamoto) shows up from the prison. Having already lost his ‘face’ in his ‘own’ turf after Okada reclaims his area and position, Matsunaga even loses his physical strength to deadly tuberculosis. But only after he is exposed to the bitter reality of being cheated, the realisation of being ‘exploited’ by the Yakuza godfathers (prototype of feudal lords?), that he feels ‘defeated’. And the very realisation proves fatal.

Dr Sanada, the scalpel-tongued old man, is a ‘drunken angel’. He is the rarity who tried to heal Matsunaga. No wonder Kurosawa and Keinosuke Uegusa were at odds before they came up with the character (which took five days to ‘begin’). Kurosawa writes in Something Like an Autobiography, “In order to bring his (Matsunaga’s) personality into high relief, I decided to pit another character against him. At first I thought I would make this antagonist a young humanist doctor who was just setting up his practice in the area. But no matter how hard Uekusa and I worked at it, we couldn’t bring this idealized doctor to life — he was so perfect that he had no vitality. The gangster figure, on the other hand, had become almost real enough to breathe; his every move reeked of flesh and blood. This immediacy arose from the fact that he was based on a real-life model, whom Uekusa was meeting with regularly. Uekusa was, in fact, becoming so immersed in the gangsters’ way of life, so absorbed in and sympathetic toward the underworld, that he and I later quarreled over it.

As background to the characterizations, we decided to create an unsightly drainage pond where people threw their garbage. It became the symbol of the disease that was eating away at the whole neighborhood, and it grew clearer day by day in our minds. We despaired all the more that our second protagonist, the young physician setting up his practice, remained a lifeless marionette and refused to move of his own accord. Every day Uekusa and I sat glaring at each other, surrounded by piles of crumpled and torn paper with scribbles on it. I was beginning to think we would never find a way out; I was even thinking of scrapping the whole project.”

But the certain arrogant alcoholic doctor whom they met in a slum in the port city of Yokohama is for sure a good man. He wins a few battles, although he has lost many. His cynicism (“Once a beast, always a beast. You can never change anyone.”) is markedly the product of his own failures. Perhaps, the post-war Japan, the ‘pointless sacrifices of his people’, loss of humanity, absence of rationality- all of these factors should be taken into account to explain his attitude to life and people around him. It isn’t clear if he chose to live surrounded by ‘a bunch scum, rotten, maggot-infested bacteria’, perhaps, to help other people get out of the filthy sump of crime. But his ‘rational approach’ to life ‘failed’ to save Matsunaga. (Is it this sacrifice that he regards ‘pointless’ now? “Human sacrifice has gone out of style.”) A man like him can only be more frustrated by failures like this. Perhaps, this can explain his inebriation, his ‘raw humanity’ and ‘bitterly sarcastic’ approach to reality. The old dog can’t learn new tricks. But his ‘failure’ is more desirable than any victory.

When Okada threatens to use violence to get back his former mistress, Miyo, now under Dr Sanada’s refuge, Matsunaga, despite his miserable failing human condition, tries to defend his ‘angels’. Drunken AngelBut Sanada is sick of the feudal tradition- of serving like slaves- in false notions of ‘Yakuza honour’ (he calls it a thing of myth). After all his faith in the Yakuza code of honour is ‘blown to bits’, a disillusioned Matsunaga unsuccessfully tries to kill Okada despite high chances of his failure. But his tragic end is pitiful, and in a way, ‘dignified’. He doesn’t make another ‘pointless sacrifice’ in order to protect Miyo, and perhaps the doctor too, from the hoodlums (he’s also trying to save his own ‘face’). He shows the human sacrifice hasn’t completely gone out of style. At last, he frees himself from the stinking sump where he was caught in like the human-miniature on the surface of the sump but in a self-destructive way. But what else does a man have besides his ‘face’?

Kurosawa has treated a wide range of female characters. One is deceitful femme fatale (Nanae- Michiyo Kogure), other loyal (Miyo- Chieko Nakakita) while the young schoolgirl is full of optimism towards life. Then there is an admirable lover. Although Kurosawa talks about gender equality, it has always remained an elusive idea. Perhaps, it will always remain the same. The very notion of equality is absurd, an unattainable ideal that I’m also foolishly trying to achieve. The ‘Drunken Angel’ (Takashi) shines throughout the film. But I need more time before I can ‘dissect’ Toshiro. Maybe, some other day.

— March 10, 08