Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune star in Kurosawa noir DRUNKEN ANGEL
DRUNKEN ANGEL (Akira Kurosawa, 1948)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Saturday, January 23, 1:30, 3:30, 5:40, 7:50, 9:50
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
The first film that Kurosawa had total control over, DRUNKEN ANGEL tells the story of a young Yakuza member, Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune), who shows up late one night at the office of the neighborhood doctor, Sanada (Takashi Shimura), to have a bullet removed from his hand. Sanada, an expert on tuberculosis, immediately diagnoses Matsunaga with the disease, but the gangster is too proud to admit there is anything wrong with him. Sanada sees a lot of himself in the young man, remembering a time when his life was full of choices — he could have been a gangster or a successful big-city doctor. When Okada (Reisaburo Yamamoto) returns from prison, searching for Sanada’s nurse, Miyo (Chieko Nakakita), the film turns into a classic noir, with marvelous touches of German expressionism thrown in. We deducted a quarter star for the terrible incidental music that lapses into melodramatic mush. The screening is part of Film Forum’s Kurosawa Festival, which runs through February 18.