Drunken Angel

Pros: energetic perf from Mifune as gangster with substance

Cons: A better subtitle might be in order

The Bottom Line: a movie with substance from a period rife with censoring about the gangster character in Japan

Review: Without the energetic performance of Toshiro Mifune as the young gangster Matsunaga in Drunken Angel the movie would be like another edition of a doctor movie of the week.  The galvanizing relationship between Matsunaga and Takashi Shimura as the ...

Pros: Mifune's first film with Kurosawa; intense depiction of moral decay in postwar Japan; engaging story

Cons: Woefully awful subtitle translations for the Mei Ah DVD

The Bottom Line: This was the first critically acclaimed film by Kurosawa, not a masterpiece, but an engaging film noir featuring a youthful Toshirô Mifune.

Review: Recently, I reviewed the film R ed Beard (1965), which was the last collaboration between Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and actor Toshirô Mifune. Here we have the other bookend for that relationship – the ...