Akira Kurosawa's Drunken Angel examines the life and times of a frank doctor whose passionate commitment to rationality leads to a puzzling confrontation with a neighbourhood syndicate. Alcoholic Dr. Sanada (Takashi Shimura) tells it like it is and doesn't hold back his professional opinion when confronted with the violent and feudal aggression of criminal thugs. His practice is located by a swampy chemical bath that his unchecked drinking has forced him to reside beside. Enter Matsunaga (Toshirô Mifune), territorial chief and reluctant sufferer of tuberculosis. His underground lifestyle has trouble adjusting to Sanada's problematic prescriptions notably due to rival chief Okada's (Reisaburo Yamamoto) reappearance on his hard fought for turf. Okada's prominence soon seeks Matsunaga's love interest as well, and as he's overtly pushed out of the gang, tempers flair and tensions despair.
Dr. Sanada forms an awkward friendship with Matsunaga for he recognizes within the young hood a semblance of his own brazen youth and wants to help him transcend his life of crime. Sanada also boldly defends the rights of women when Okada comes seeking the attention of Nurse Miyo (Chieko Nakakita) (his former partner). But as Sanada fades from the narrative the film's temperamentally upbeat focus dissipates as well and Matsunaga is left alone to confront the heartless confines of his changing world. Princes among paupers, heroes amidst happenstance, in Drunken Angel Kurosawa deftly displays one man's brave attempts to save a lost soul, all the while offering progressive social commentary that highlights how he's saved his own.
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