Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Dustin Dye "Drunken Angel" is one of dozens of collaborations between Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura, and one of many which was directed by Akira Kurosawa. The two actors have played nearly every possible, even contradictory, dynamic, from sempai-kohai (senior-junior) in "Stray Dog" and "Seven Samurai," to somewhat antagonistic roles in "Drunken Angel."Dr. Sanada (Shimura) is the titular drunken angel. He is a competent doctor, despite being an alcoholic, who operates a clinic in a shabby Tokyo neighborhood, still in shambles in the aftermath of World War II. (The American Occupation forces censored films at the time, and banned the showing of bombed-out ruins. Nevertheless, Kurosawa succeeded in providing a sense of the seediness and desolation of post-war Tokyo.) Dr. Sanada is rough around the edges, screaming at children not to play in the stagnant cesspit in the neighborhood and admonishing passers-by for their unhealthy habits. But we see that he clearly cares about his patients in his treatment toward a 17-year-old schoolgirl who is recovering from tuberculosis.The story begins when a two-bit yakuza gangster, Matsunaga (Mifune), finds his way to Dr. Sanada's clinic after a gun fight. While treating Matsunaga, Dr. Sanada suspects the yakuza has tuberculosis. Dr. Sanada insists he can cure Matsunaga, but it will take strict discipline on the latter's part.Mifune fits the role of the down-and-out gangster perfectly. The young actor's face is intensely brooding, but sallow (the result of hardships during the war). Mifune was sometimes accused of overacting by Western critics who only knew his work through "Seven Samurai" and "Yojimbo." His performance here provides a stark contrast to the comical, drunken buffoon he played in "Seven Samurai." Mifune's is a fully realized character. Like many career lowlifes, his commitment to changing his ways, even in the face of death, is wishy-washy. The audience can see that he's not all bad, and we hope he can change his ways before it's too late.Watching "Drunken Angel," I was reminded of another Kurosawa-Shimura collaboration, Ikiru, which was also about a man facing imminent death. But in Ikiru, Shimura's character makes drastic changes to give meaning to his thus-far wasted life. In "Drunken Angel," Mifune's character denies his illness and resists change.The soundtrack was especially notable. Rather than having a score, most of the music is ambient, coming from some unseen source, such as a street performer playing the same tune on a Spanish guitar over and over, or a crackly waltz booming over a loud speaker giving ironic contrast to a dramatic scene. One particularly haunting moment was when the dreaded Okada turns up after being released from prison, takes the guitar from the street performer, and plays a suitably ominous tune.Like many Kurosawa films, "Drunken Angel" is somewhat preachy, and the dialogue can be ham-handed at times, particularly when the characters make statements that are obvious to the viewer.While "Drunken Angel" doesn't have the epic scope of Kurosawa's later samurai films, it is still a highly watchable, minor classic.

bob-790-196018 In this first important film from Akira Kurosawa, the great director displays his Chekhovian empathy for suffering and his sense of the humanity at the heart of all of his characters.Dr. Sanada, played by Takashi Shimura, is often overbearing in his hatred of the pestilence-ridden city in which he practices and of the yakuza--mobsters--that hold the city in thrall. He drinks too much, is hardly a model of good clinical hygiene, and speaks rudely to just about everyone. Yet he has an abiding sense of duty to cure illness and in the case of the young gangster Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune, in his first of many roles with Kurosawa)he is unable to resist caring about his TB-stricken patient. He sees his younger self in Matsunaga.Matsunaga, in turn, is arrogant and violent. Ordinary people, fearful of his power, bow to him when he passes in the streets of the community that he lords it over. Yet Kurosawa also shows us his vulnerability and forces us to understand his suffering as his disease progresses.Their stories are played out against a background of postwar misery shown in realistic detail and symbolized by the disease-ridden pools of muck that one encounters everywhere in the city. It's as if Italian neorealism had made its way to Japan. And there are also all the trappings of American film noir--the dives, the saloon girls, the gangster conflicts.Kurosawa could have been influenced by these foreign cinema trends, both flowering overseas at the time, but he was enough of a genius to have invented these techniques himself. Either way, it's a fine film with many wonderful images and dramatic sequences. Matsunaga's fight to the death with the mob boss who usurped his position is wonderfully gripping.

Michael_Elliott Drunken Angel (1948) *** (out of 4) Straight-forward and simple drama about the troubled relationship between a low level gangster (Toshiro Mifune) dying of tuberculosis and the drunken doctor (Takashi Shimura) trying to save him during post-war Japan. There are a lot of different genres on display in this early Kurosawa film including noir, gangster and an odd couple drama. The three don't always mix too well together but Kurosawa's great direction mixed with the great lead performances make this a must see even if the gang would go onto much better films. What works the best here are the performances by Shimura and Mifune. The two men work extremely well together because they make their characters so well rounded to the point where you feel as if you know everything about the men. Mifune really digs deep into the gangster and this leads to many well acted scenes including the drunken one where the gangster must finally realize how serious his disease is. Shimura clearly steals the film as the angry and often times bitter, if still caring, drunken doctor. The amount of anger he displays with his character while still making us understand why he cares so much is perfectly done by the actor. Cheiko Nakakita and Reizaburo Yamamoto are also very good in their supporting roles of the nurse and gang boss. The cinematography is also top-notch especially a dream like sequence where the dying gangster invisions himself as a zombie-like creature. This scene is very effective as is another where spitting blood is involved. I think at times the film is way too over dramatic and this includes many scenes dealing with the "swampness" of Japan. Even with that said, this is still a very impressive drama that fans of Kurosawa will want to check out.

Rindiana This good, if not great early Kurosawa is still rough around the edges and not free of obvious symbolism and narrative weaknesses. It all feels somewhat forced and not quite as fluent and natural as later works.But, needless to say, there are always pleasures to be had from a movie made by this wonderful artist: Kurosawa favourites Shimura and Mifune (in his first teaming with Kurosawa) give their usual multi-layered performances, the mise-en-scène is superb, and a sound gimmick featuring guitar-playing is brilliantly used to enhance atmosphere.In this instance, though, one cannot fully swallow the director's "life's a swamp but use your willpower and watch out for the silver lining"-attitude. He jumbled it this time. But glorious things would follow...7 out of 10 buckets of immaculately white paint