Yoidore tenshi (1948)

Réalisateur:

Akira Kurosawa

Scénaristes:

Keinosuke Uekusa (written by)
Akira Kurosawa (written by)

Date de sortie:

30 décembre 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drame

Intrigue:

A drunken doctor with a hot temper and a violence-prone gangster with tuberculosis form a quicksilver bond.

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Gangster | Tuberculosis | Yakuza | Alcoholic

Récompenses:

4 wins

Avis des utilisateurs:

"Drinking? You don't want to be cured!"

Ensemble

Takashi Shimura	...	Sanada
Toshirô Mifune	...	Matsunaga
Reisaburô Yamamoto	...	Okada
Michiyo Kogure	...	Nanae
Chieko Nakakita	...	Miyo
Noriko Sengoku	...	Gin
Shizuko Kasagi	...	Singer
Eitarô Shindô	...	Takahama
Masao Shimizu	...	Oyabun
Taiji Tonoyama	...	Shop Proprietor
Yoshiko Kuga	...	Schoolgirl
Chôko Iida	...	Bâya
Ko Ubukata	...	Punk
Akira Tani	...	Yakuza Follower
Sachio Sakai	...	Guitar Player
Senkichi Ômura
Tateo Kawasaki	...	Flower Shop Proprietor
Mayuri Mokusho	...	Daughter at Flower Shop
Toshiko Kawakubo	...	Dancer
Haruko Toyama	...	Dancer
Yukie Nanbu	...	Dancer
Sumire Shiroki	...	Anego
reste de la distribution par ordre alphabétique:
Yôko Sugi	...	Dancer (uncredited)

Réalisé par
Akira Kurosawa

Scénaristes
Keinosuke Uekusa		(written by)
Akira Kurosawa		(written by)

Produit par
Sôjirô Motoki	....	producer

Musique originale
Fumio Hayasaka

Image
Takeo Itô

Montage
Akikazu Kono

Création des décors
Takashi Matsuyama

Décorateur de plateau
Takashi Matsuyama

Assistant réalisateur
Tsuneo Kobayashi	....	chief assistant director

Département Art
Yoshirô Muraki	....	assistant art director

Technicien du son
Wataru Konuma	....	sound
Ichirô Minawa	....	sound effects editor

Caméra et Département Electrique
Masao Soeda	....	still photographer
Kinzo Yoshizawa	....	lighting technician

Dpartement Editorial
Akikazu Kono	....	negative cutter

Département Musique
Ôsuke Itô	....	musician: guitar

Divers
Sumiko Nakao	....	script supervisor

Companies de production

• Toho Company

Distributeurs

• Toho Company (1948) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Brandon Films (1959) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Cowboy Pictures (2002) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Nihon Eiga Satellite Broadcasting (2007) (Japan) (TV)
• Svensk Filmindustri (SF) (1969) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Lume Filmes (2008) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (all media)
• Sandrews (2009) (Sweden) (DVD)

Autres Companies

• Toho Studios  sound stages

Autre(s) titre(s):

Drunken Angel (International: English title)

Durée:

98 min | Japan:150 min (director's cut) | USA:102 min

Pays:

Japan

Langue:

Japonais

Couleur:

Noir et Blanc

Rapport de forme:

1,37 : 1

Son:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Classification:

Finland:K-15 (2005) | Australia:PG | Sweden:15 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:PG | USA:PG-13

Lieux de tournage:

Toho Studios, Tokyo, Japan

Société:

Toho Company

Anecdotes:

In early drafts of the script, the story was almost entirely about Doctor Sanada (Takashi Shimura) and Matsunaga the thug (Toshirô Mifune) was a small supporting part. However, Akira Kurosawa was so impressed with Mifune's performance that he greatly increased the Matsunaga part, to the point where the Doctor and Matsunaga are almost equal in screen-time.

Guillemet:

Dr. Sanada: He tormented you, made you sick, and then deserted you like a puppy. And you still wag your tail and follow him.

Bande son:

Hitogoroshi no uta

"Drinking? You don't want to be cured!"

Kurosawa began his career as a jobbing director, making the pictures the studio wanted him to in conventional, by-the-book style. It was with Drunken Angel, his eighth film, that he turned a corner. He regarded it as the first film that was really his, and typically here combining bold social commentary with tender sympathy towards flawed and downtrodden characters.

This also marks the beginning of one of the greatest actor-director relationships in the history of cinema, with the young Toshiro Mifune making his debut for Kurosawa. It is amazing how naturally talented an actor Mifune was. He already knew exactly how to move in front of the camera, and could convey so much with the tiniest of gestures. However, he doesn't get to show off his full range here. Also, in the leading role, is Kurosawa regular and fantastic character actor Takashi Shimura. There isn't really one bad performance in the whole thing.

Drunken Angel is essentially a lament for the state of post-war Japanese society. Not only does the story concern the victims of that era, it is also an extended allegory using illness and contamination as a metaphor for the state of the nation. The central characters – a tubercular gangster (Mifune) and an alcoholic doctor (Shimura) – are partly to blame for their own conditions, and while they want to get better haven't the willpower to do so. The pond of stagnant water outside the doctor's surgery, a constantly recurring image of despair, seems to be the result of a bomb crater from the war.

The plot structure is episodic and bitty, somewhat reminiscent of neo-realist cinema. Unfortunately this makes the whole thing a bit lacking in pace and even boring in places. Things really start to pick up in the second half of the film when the plot starts to come together. The introduction of Okada, a gangland boss who has just finished a stint in prison, adds an element of danger to what has so far only been a gloomy drama.

Music is a constant presence in Drunken Angel, with diagetic music (i.e. really there in the scene rather than a background score) being used to give atmosphere and introduce characters. A whole variety of tunes are heard blasting from bars and dance halls, but most memorable of all is a man who sits outside the surgery playing a dismal Japanese folk melody on an acoustic guitar. This acts like a theme tune for the doctor. However, when Okada appears he takes the guitar and announces his presence by playing a doom-laden classical piece. This seems to have been a major influence on Sergio Leone, particularly on the character of Harmonica in his Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

It is in the final act of this picture that Kurosawa reveals his talent for deeply sentimental and emotional direction. I won't reveal exactly what happens, but as the film looks set to reach a tense finale (in what is the only proper action sequence) Kurosawa turns it on its head, using expert timing, camera-work, cross-cutting and Fumio Hayasaka's score to produce a scene of incredible poignancy. Another Kurosawa trademark which is established here was his way of injecting a little note of hope into the ending of his darker pessimistic pictures, with the final scene suggesting there may be a cure for this sick society.

Despite all these developments in Kurosawa's style, he was not quite yet ready to turn out a masterpiece. In some ways he seems to have simply crammed every idea he had at the time into the 95 minutes. There is even a dream sequence in which Mifune smashes open a coffin is chased by a zombie version of himself. This hints towards Kurosawa's later horror-tinged work and a similar but better done scene in Kagemusha (1980), but here it seems a little clichéd and very much at odds with the overall tone of the film. Drunken Angel has its moments and is packed with good elements, which is why I rate it as highly as I do, but as a whole it doesn't come together enough to really suck the viewer in.