Drunken Angel

                                                              
I will admit that while however seductive it was, I was resilient to blog on Drunken Angel, for the blog credits. I was determined to go exclusively for Kurosawa and to see an amazing film(or something pretentious like that) But on the other hand FREE BLOG CREDITS!

So, Drunken Angel. I didn't realize until it had started that I had seen this movie before quite a few years ago. However, that was on a small television that should have expired ten years before, seeing it on the Big Screen was absolutely incredible. Somehow it is easier to get into what's going on when you can see everything so clearly. Now that's out of the way I'll actually talk about the film.
First of all, something that is often talked about is the relationship between the Doctor and Matsunaga. What is most interesting about this is the character shifts that take place. the Doctor is all-in-all a very likable and generally well received by those around him character that you hope will do well. Matsunaga is young and misguided, he is a character that we hope will come around and see the error of his ways and go straight. However this is not that type of film. The film is not afraid of honesty, Kurosawa knows what the real world is like an saw no reason to lie to the audience. In the end Matsunaga is given a choice and makes one that leads to his demise. Now the crucial thing to remember is that he didn't make this decision knowing that it was the wrong one. In fact he probably thought it was his only option. In this way the film really captures the complexity that us as humans exhibit, that no one intentionally makes bad decisions, we just don't see all of the other options presented to us.

Another quick thing, the actor playing the doctor, Takashi also starred in another amazing Kurosawa film: Ikiru. I haven't checked the Signs&Wonders film list yet but I'm really excited to see that one again on the big screen.