Druken Angel: Some Thoughts

 

      Drunken Angel is my first Kurosawa film and I must say I rather enjoyed it. The story revolves around a poor doctor living in post WWII Japanese slums, and one of his patients, the leader of the local Yakuza (mafia) who is suffering from TB. My first impression of this film was that it was going to focus mainly on the Yakuza, but it is actually the doctor who is the main character. I greatly appreciated how the title of this film referred to the doctor's dual nature as a savior who cannot seem to save himself. My favorite character in the film was definitely the doctor. I love how he took no lip from the Yakuza. The very reason anyone would join an organization like the Yakuza is to gain fear and respect from the general populace however the doctor is never phased in the slightest by their bravado, and given the anti-climatic showdown at the end of the movie between two supposed Yakuza big-wigs he certainly had no reason to afraid of them, which is something else I found interesting. As hilarious as it was to watch two big intimidating men flounder around holding their knives like kindergarteners the had a certain level of compelling to it as well as it portrays just how hollow the perks of being a Yakuza are. But anyhow, I also liked the doctor because he always combated his opponents with facts instead of fists. Like when Matsunaga tried to muscle a better answer out of him concerning his condition, the doctor retorts, "don't take my word for it, get an X-ray." He even stands up to the infamous Okada telling his intimidation of with the cold hard truth that "the world doesn't work the way it did when you went to prison anymore." I feel this film takes a stance that many main steam films today lack, and that is that violence is not the answer. Matsunada, the man that lived by the sword dies an inglorious death by the sword and the doctor, a man that chose not to fight fire with fire (with the exception of throwing things at people), still lives.