Review of Kurosawa's Drunken Angel

This was Akira Kurosawa's first post- WWII film. In some of the scenes it shows how destroyed Tokyo was after the war. There is a polluted pond where people are dumping garbage into without trepidation. But, Drunken Angel is not a film about the war or anything like that. It is a film about lost souls who cannot break free from the Tokyo underworld. It reminded me of Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront. The mob controls everything, gangsters are out of control, there are no police around, everyone is struggling to survive. A very realist film. There is one dream sequence, but the realism and degradation of the characters stood out most to me.

This had to be Toshiro Mifune's break through performance as well as Akira Kurosawa's first hit. I've seen several of Kurosawa's films of the war period and they were not as good as Drunken Angel. There were some good scenes and the final fight scene between Mifune's character and Okada is a truly memorable sequence. I sat in awe of the development of the scene. One take with no cuts shows Mifune slipping and falling, narrowly avoiding death. The audience doesn't know what will happen, will he die? Will he kill the other yakuza? Finally he is killed with a knife to the stomach.

I thought that sequence was the best part of the movie. Also Mifune's character is frank, perhaps naive, when he barges into the Big Boss's house and finds Okada with him. Furthermore, he makes another bold move when he barges into Okada's apartment and tries to kill him. Truly, Mifune's character leads a tragic life. He is a low ranking Yakuza who is dying of TB. He refuses to quit his partying lifestyle and betrays the trust of several people, most of all the doctor who tries to help him change his ways.

I thought the film had some flaws. For example when Mifune tells the Doctor he tore up the x-ray. I thought to myself there is no way he tore up the x-ray because there would be no way to move the story forward. Mifune would have to go get another x-ray and that would take way too much time in a movie that was slowly developing. Another flaw, or obvious plot device, was when Mifune moves strongly for confrontation. Perhaps this is because he is a yakuza, but I thought it was more to move the story forward. Without the confrontation there was no story. I thought Mifune's character could have plotted more, maybe a surprise attack on the Big Boss or Okada? Yet, it flows well. There is a narrative progression that brings the film to a dramatic close and leaves the audience with a sad, tragic sense. the scenes get shorter building tension to the climatic fight scene, and, tragically, to Mifune's death.

I thought this was a good film. It had elements of film noir, gangster, and social problem films in it. I think Kurosawa showed progression in his style and narrative.