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.
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