Shizukanaru Kettō (1949)

English Title: The Quite Duel

Language: Japanese

Theme: Suffering

Undercurrent: Love, Courage

Watched it on Youtube (B/W)

Having lost in the infomercial style of story telling, Akira Kurosawa's movies rediscover the passionate drama I am so fond of. The first 10 minutes of the movie goes in silence while a doctor performs a surgery on a prisoner during WWII - a downpour, leaking roof, sleeplessness, sweat, flies and other odds distract him to cut himself and thereby contract syphilis from the patient. He then fights out himself to do what is right and quietly fights towards a better life. His sacrifices, struggles, care and the perceptions of people around him form the crux of a very important story. 

The mise-en-scene here are plants in and around the doctor's office. The film carries the fine light effects of Kurosawa, his time lapses and lengthy shots. The way Mifune handled the character is commendable, especially the scene where he shows his despair. But despite Mifune's brilliant work, he lacked the strength to carry such a strong character forward basically because he is too rigid in many scenes, often over-doing melodrama. A lesser actor and director pair may win an Oscar for it but this is a sub-standard performance from this super team. The entire movie rests on the young Dr. Kyoji. 

I have a feeling that the doctor with Syphilis is a representation of post-war Japan but I am not sure. Because the Japanese feel that Kurosawa's work has strong historical metaphors, this seems possible. Regardless, courage at the face of adversity is an important and laudable quality. Certain dialogues, some of which are way too heavy (easy to compensate with acting but didn't), add tons of weight to scenes with despair, like "Because I don't like losing.. and I am a doctor..". The quality with which the various aspects of the issue are covered makes the story interesting but the script makes the suffering a burdening melodrama that the cast can't really carry. The saving grace is Miki Sanjo (as Misao) who had an extremely strong presence that made her pain carry out through her character's scripting perfectly. The reaction of each part, like Dr. Kyoji's attempt to kiss her are so perfectly directed that it thrills me. It brought a similar reaction in me, which helped me connect to the lengthy single shot of Dr. Kyoji's suffering within. Such is the mastery of the greats as they pull us inside. 

Public perception of the character is taken up by the wannabe nurse Ms. Minegishi who carries her role much better after the arc of maturity. Showing her character as coming of age made the movie connect to the audience as they change with the nurse's view of it all. The doctor's decisions and integrity help him raise above the character of the honest baby-faced nurse, and that is a commendable story to write. The screenplay lacked the variations and creativity of Kurosawa's works like Drunken Angel (1948), his earlier work. The story telling seemed too straight, characters moving in predictable straight lines with little or no variation is boring. Still, this is one of the most meaningful work on suffering, especially by professionals. The courage, sacrifice, kindness and work ethic of Dr. Kyoji stand out as the attributes that made the hero, while suffering is shown (by the last dialogue given by his father played by Takashi Shimura) as the source to his fame a saint among men. 

Technically, each scene is brilliantly placed but the details of the hospital are often missing as the place looks mostly empty. The fact that the hero's character doesn't change or does anything special after the 10th minute is a loss. Editing is ok, while music is sometimes very annoying and did not go well with some scenes. 

My favorite scene is that of the final meeting between Dr. Kyoji and Misao. Each part of it is such well written and well directed that I felt Kurosawa everywhere. He played with my emotion for quite some time only to finally end it as a painful sacrifice, and such situations hurt. Irresponsibility and self-developed ignorance causes much more pain and harm. The pain and suffering are so much felt from each part that is affecting his life. This film stands more as a documentary on despair and hope.