Akira Kurosawa-Shizukanaru ketto (’The Quiet Duel’) (1949)

Published by sybercope | Filed under Video

Based on a play by Kazuo Kikuta this early Akira Kurosawa film concerns an army surgeon (Mifune) who during a life-saving operation contaminates himself with syphilis which at the time was virtually incurable. Now suffering with the dreaded disease he needs to find the faith to return to his work helping save people’s lives including the man from whom he contracted the disease. BCi Ent.







Kyoji Fujisaki, a young doctor, contracts syphilis from a patient during wartime surgery. After the war, he returns to his fiancée and rejects her without explanation. His nurse Rui learns the truth, however. When Fujisaki encounters the man who had infected him in the war, the doctor forces the man to take responsibility for himself and for the man’s wife, who expects a child. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0041870/plotsummary)







This early Kurosawa film might initially seem simply a curiosity in the director’s extensive filmography. It is definitely a minor achievement but gradually the movie emerges as a fine demonstration of Kurosawa’s storytelling abilities. It is about a doctor (a very young and handsome Toshirô Mifune) that contracts syphilis from a patient he operated. The doctor has to face the stigma that comes with such disease. The film is pure melodrama, very sentimental and high on big emotions and overplayed vignettes. But visually, the film is interesting. Kurosawa’s staging (including some interesting use of deep focus photography) is excellent. Mifune’s quiet charisma is already visible here, and Takashi Shimura is very moving as Mifune’s loving father; their few scenes together are priceless. Both actors did superior work in subsequent Kurosawa productions, but you can already notice how well these actors fit in the director’s universe. Noriko Sengoku steals a few scenes as bitter apprentice nurse. The film is short and its brevity helps. Kurosawa’s first masterpiece (”Rashomon”) is still a few years ahead but this is a nice warm up for things to come. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0041870/usercomments)