I.    Situating Kurosawa and Drunken Angel in the history of Japanese Film
1)    Under dual censorships exercised by SCAP (the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers) and the domestic office of the government (CI&E) (the Civil Information and Education Section) (1945-52), Japanese filmmakers’ artistic freedom was severely limited.
Subjects such as nationalism, militarism, revenge, distortion of history etc. were banned by SCAP (107). Particular images of national icons such as Mt. Fuji and act of bowing were also banned because those images provoke Japan’s wartime nationalism (109).
On the other hand, CI&E confiscated and destroyed a certain range of films without any clear reasons (108).
Due to the SCAP’s censorship, artistic realism was nearly disappearing from screen. Film directors could hardly use footage or real image of ruins and bombed cities.
2)    On the other hand, new film production that gives an emphasis on democratic ideal was readily accepted by the SCAP. Such themes as opposition to feudalism, capitalism, or imperialism easily passed the censorship. The occupation forces were afraid that people might identify the rise of communism with anti-emperor sentiments (115). So, after the authority oscillated the views, finally, Japanese directors attained freedom to explore traditional Japanese-ness and realism that are derived from postwar reality. This shift well reflects the wasteland and ruins in Drunken Angel.
3)    The realism of postwar Japanese film is oftentimes compared with Italian Neorealismo(New Realism) that was represented by such filmmakers as Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio de Sica. Both Japanese and Italian versions of realism meant the reality as they are (116). Both tended to use natural light, location shooting, and realistic depiction of human emotions.
4)    In these historical contexts, Kurosawa’s Drunken Angel represented the emergence of new postwar Japanese film. Using images of postwar realities and misery, as most eloquently symbolized by the swamp, the film portrays human reality marked by psychological agonies or struggles, and attempts at coming to term with the remnant of wartime problems. The film falls into a typical of “shomingeki”(theatrical play of common people) (117).
As Donald Richie states, Kurosawa’s “dismissal of tradition”(125) is a turning point in the history of Japanese film. Despite multiple layers of censorships and limitation of themes and motifs, Kurosawa felt that the postwar film industry offered him more freedom than ever. For instance, such stylistic choices as “first cutting, big close-ups, expressive camera movements” (117) well characterize his aesthetics.
5)    Kurosawa, Ozu, Naruse (three major figures of postwar Japanese film)     – As Donald Richie states, OzuYasujiro and NaruseMikio are considered a good counterpart to Kurosawa for their aesthetic styles. They are far more traditionalist than Kurosawa is, and their attitudes toward Japanese historical past is different. Ozu bases his aesthetics on traditional modes of humanity that is, for example, represented by Buddhist philosophy of transience. On the other hand, Naruse is a more detached observer of tradition so that his characters tend to react against old attitudes or conventional social institutions (119-129).
Discussion Question: Then, how can we characterize Kurosawa’s depiction of human beings?

II. Drunken Angel (1948) – Kurosawa’s seventh film.
1)    Visual components: The film is set in so-called“après-guerre” (postwar) Tokyo. Images of the city are mostly derived from real everydayness, while intentional emphasis of light and shadow is used to enliven the narrative.
Camera, Lighting: Unlike Ozu, Kurosawa uses more dynamic pan, close-ups, and follow-up with characters’ movement – character-oriented construction of the screen, camera plays a subordinate role to the human beings.

2) Sound components:
Music:
a. Opening scene is marked by a repeated guitar phrase in minor key (a character refers it as a mandolin but actually a guitar) in darkness. In the beginning the music is played by an unknown person in Sanada’sneighborhood. Here, the guitar piece foreshadows a forthcoming tragedy and psychological torments the protagonist undergoes.
b. Synthesis of music and visual: music tends to replace realistic sounds of scenes; for instance, when Matsunaga stands on the paddle, water ripple cannot be heard but the guitar sounds come from elsewhere (this can be called “extra diegetic sound”), to illustrate his psychological state instead of reality shown in the visual image.
c. Foreign music including Skater Warz (at the scene where Matsunaga visits a bar coughing and approaching to death), swing jazz, and orgel (a music box that appears in the scene in which Matsunaga lies on bed, and Sanada’s gentleness is glimpsed) are illustrious of the characters’ emotion and play an integral part of screen.
d. Silence in the scene of Matsunaga and Okada’s confrontation – a girl rushes out of the room and stumbles at the corridor effectively portray the tension.
e. Kasagi Shizuko’s song at the dance hall – She is a well-known Japanese singer of the time. This suggests Kurosawa’s experimental incorporation of reality into the film.

3)    Characters:
a. Dr. Sanada (Shimura Takashi): Physician who works at his clinic in postwar Tokyo. He is very outspoken and fond of drinking even while being at work. Also he is a passionate humanist, and because of his choleric nature, he tends to initiate a fight and even shouts at a girl. He sees the image of his youth in Matsunaga’s struggle. He is a self-claiming “angel” who is worried about the others’ health and well-being. He states that “rationality” is the most important element for human beings (as though a counterpart to Matsunaga). In the last scene, he and the patience mingle into the mass/mob scene (a symbolic rendition of postwar chaos and disorder).
b. Matsunaga (MifuneToshiro): He is a delinquent member of a yakuza group. In an opening scene, he visits Sanada’s clinic to receive treatment for his hand shot by another yakuza. He is unaware of the fact that his lung has developed tuberculosis (X-Ray photo confirms his serious TB showing a big hole in his lung). He holds multiple faces such as a dandy vagabond at a dance hall. On the other hand he is a faithful, obedient subordinate who is very loyal to his yakuza boss. His TB is a symbolic disease of his “core” according to Sanada. Despite his delinquency and decadent life style, he keeps returning to the clinic. Yet “code of honor” as a yakuza member remains to be his life philosophy.
c. Sanada’s girlfriend Miyo: She is chased by the yakuza group led by Okada.
d. TB patient girl: She returns to Sanada after graduating from high school. With the sense of accomplishment, she brings her diploma to him in the last scene – symbolically speaking, her cured body and graduation suggests the presence of bright future and the virtue of labor postwar Japan can embrace.
e. Okada: Returning from a jail, he plays a pre-war song “the Killer’s Anthem.” He represents a failure and gradual disappearance of patriarchal society in postwar Japan. He and his yakuza group demand Sanada return Miyo to Okada. In a deeper level, Okada does not conform to the hierarchy of yakuza world, and tramples upon the traditional yakuza practice based on trust and support. He represents a quintessentially evil persona who constantly exploits weaker people like Matsunaga and Miyo – this aspect reflects Kurosawa’s inspiration from Dostoyevsky (Burma 7, DVD Booklet).
f. Nanae: Matsunaga’s mistress who has taken care of him for long time. She is ready to leave for a better job. She represents a postwar pragmatism and materialism.
4) Some symbolic scenes:
a. Matsunaga’s agony in the opening scene at Sanada’s clinic.
b. Contrasts between dark postwar ambience and gaudy pleasure-seeking night life (cabaret, bar, dance hall).
c. Sanada’s clinic is located at the river bank or paddle. It marks a physical (or material) bottom of bottoms even in postwar social hierarchy. His poverty is apparent in contrast with friend doctor Takahama’s well-to-do situation with the car with driver.
d. The swamp/paddle: The recurrent image of the swamp/paddle is an analogy of Matsunaga’s mindset – the image mirrors not only his tuberculosis that torments him but also deep pessimism and resignation in life. Also it mirrors degenerations and dejections Japan as the defeated nation was experiencing. There is a scene that juxtaposes the swamp with an open sea and image of him being chased by Okada’s ghost coming out of coffin – what does the image suggest?
e. Matsunaga’s death scene: He collapses on the balcony with stains of white paint, where laundry shakes like birds or angels from the Heaven.

5) Discussion Questions:
1)    How does the camera capture the characters’ facial expressions? How do they use “gaze” or facial angles, etc.?
2)    What does disease stand for in the film? How does it stretch itself from a personal story to a larger context of postwar Japan toward the end of the story?