TB's a real pain: Drunken Angel

Tonight we watched the Akira Kurosawa film Drunken Angel, a movie made in 1948 about post-war Japan, where a doctor suffering from alcoholism treats a young man from the Yakuza who is suffering of Tuberculosis. The young man, Matsunaga, kept up a seemingly love-hate relationship with the doctor, going back for help and storming off again like an emotional preteen. But the two formed a sort of friendship, and you really got attached to the characters through their respective compassion and easy relatability. The movie had a ton of great underlying themes and metaphors, but I think the best one to address is how, at the end, the doctor relates TB to life. When talking to the young girl who he had been healing of her Tuberculosis, she mentions that a rational outlook was the best way to beat TB. He then retorts with "A rational outlook is the best way to live life." That opened my eyes to the fact that this disease was a representation of everyone's life. LIfe is an ongoing struggle, and it has many problems. Those problems could come up for anyone, at any time, for unknown reasons. If not properly treated, then your situation worsens. That's why Matsunaga had such a hard time throughout his last days, and why what happened to him happened. He tried and tried to fight against himself and to solve his problems rationally, but he couldn't help disobeying his own will, even with the help of others. But the doctor stands true to his description of "drunken angel." He shows that even with his own problems, he can still use his own gifts to help others. It's just too bad that Matsunaga was just too much like the doctor, and his stubbornness forced his own hand.