Originally titled Yoidore tenshi, Drunken Angel was director Akira Kurosawa's first "auteur" project. "I finally discovered myself," he explained later. "It was my picture: I was doing it and no one else." Takashi Shimura plays an alcoholic doctor, running a fleabitten clinic in the slums of Tokyo. Shimura tries to pull himself together long enough to save the life of young hoodlum Toshiro Mifune. The doctor feels that, by saving Mifune, he is retrieving a portion of his own lost youth and
idealism. Kurosawa later observed that he had trouble corraling Tohsiro Mifune's improvisational instincts, but that "I did not want to smother that vitality." The end result in Drunken Angel is a supremely satisfying blend of Mifune's rapid-fire excesses and Kurosawa's even-handed control. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
uses the struggle of good characters amid the ruins of Tokyo as a way to confront both the lingering memories of defeat and the challenges of rebuilding that lay ahead
It's worth everyone seeing at least once, just to see how a master director really started to get his act together without the hindrances of government interference.
Kurosawa's early stylistic experimentations turn a nightclub stopover into a monstrous parody of an American jitterbug dance-off, and when blood gets finally spilled, it's in a slip-and-slide Yakuza frenzy choreographed amid splattered paint.
Drunken Angel has also been cited by Kurosawa as the film in which the immature director finally 'discovered' himself. We can all be grateful for that self-discovery.
It marked the first time that Akira Kurosawa directed Toshiro Mifune, but the results are excellent enough that you can see why their collaborations continued for decades.
The genuine compassion of a drunk doctor and the false courage of a Yakuza patient with dishonest pride and reluctant humility, Drunken Angel is an exceptional satire of the unwarranted social-political system, Japan from Akira Kurosawa. Wise. Noble.
a film that improves with each viewing. mifune and shimura always work well together, and the morality tale is well executed. simple but engaging, the film uses tragedy and frustration to announce human struggle and optimism. the film that really gave kurosawa his independence as a filmmaker, this is an excellently
shot and well written film.
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