Kurosawa's Greatness Part 1: Modest but Unforgettable Beginnings

In my first installment of several articles discussing the fine art of Akira Kurosawa, I'll begin by focusing on his earliest works from the 1940s. Granted, I've yet to see them all, but for the timebeing let's focus on a few of them...

The earliest of Kurosawa's films I've seen and thus can thoroughly cover is One Wonderful Sunday, a very heartfelt love story set in postwar Japan. I wouldn't say it's an overly lighthearted film, so to speak, as it does deal with the central couple's (well played by Isao Numasaki and Chieko Nakakita) impoverished backgrounds, but it's certainly very whimsical and ultimately an upbeat celebration of life. It feels like a Jim Jarmusch film made way before his time, as nothing really 'happens' in terms of plot points. It's just a nice slice of life, well-directed by Kurosawa, not one of my personal favourites, but certainly worth a watch.

His breakout film was to come a year later, in the form of the terrific pseudo-gangster flick Drunken Angel. Like One Wonderful Sunday, it's a 'slice of life' film that's more about characters and interactions than the plot. Where other films might have chosen to focus on the higher echelons of the underworld, Kurosawa focuses on the lower depths, and within the grimy and unsparing world he creates develops the humanity of his characters. The titular character, Takashi Shimura's kind-hearted doctor Sanada, who struggles with alcoholism, is not your typical protagonist, and the charismatic but short-tempered hoodlum Matsunaga played inimitable Toshiro Mifune, in his first Kurosawa collaboration, is not your usual cinematic gangster either.

One of Kurosawa's most remarkable talents, evident so early on in his career, was the ability to create such compelling narratives without a conventional narrative structure. Drunken Angel, unlike most 'crime films' of the time, does not hold itself to a 'plot' so to speak. Matsunaga's onset of tuberculosis and Sanada's medical aid is paralleled alongside the former's struggle to leave the criminal underworld, and the latter's moral guidance, as well as Sanada's own confrontation with his past demons. The brilliance is that you never feel like these are characters going through the motions of a story where every action they make is a set up for another plot point. Rather, you truly feel like you're watching the struggles of two individuals that makes the film so powerfully resonant.

The two leads are great, with Mifune's bombast and energetic screen presence playing perfectly off Shimura's docile and timid characterization, and the supporting cast is uniformly solid in just conveying the good, the bad, and the ugly of Kurosawa's postwar society. And though the production values for this film would most certainly have been less than many of Kurosawa's subsequent works, the production design is every bit as atmospheric as any of his other films, the haunting cinematography is quite a treat particularly in the establishing shots, and most prominent is Kurosawa's use of sound. He's never afraid to let a scene 'linger'. There's a violent fight scene which goes on too long intentionally, conveying the mindless brutality of the gangster life; a dancefloor sequence (a Kurosawa trope) that keeps going on and on till it feels extremely uncomfortable, conveying the discomfort within the comforts of the gangster life.

Kurosawa would once again collaborate with Mifune and Shimura, utilizing them as a unique buddy cop duo of sorts in the excellent film noir Stray Dog. I wouldn't be surprised if this film inspired the dynamic central to Se7en as the camaraderie between the wise veteran and the inexperienced hotshot bears some resemblance (down to Shimura looking a bit like a Japanese Morgan Freeman), albeit with less intensity and with somewhat lower stakes. Mifune's Murukami, a rookie homicide detective, has lost his gun to a mysterious pickpocket, and it's up to him and wise and world-weary detective Satō to retrieve it.

Stray Dog is far more narrative-driven than Drunken Angel, and is also a much more cynical and darker film. It has its moments of levity, most notably through the dynamic between Murukami and Satō, but it is mostly a rather sombre affair, with every crime perpetrated and witness interviewed adding another layer of cynicism and darknessto the film.

The amazing cinematography, arguably the best out of Kurosawa's pre-60s input, has some fabulous money shots, like a uniquely framed interrogation in a hotel bathroom, a dazzling racecourse sequence filled a relentless pace that comes acros in the imagery, and the scene where our heroes come so close yet so far to catching the pickpocket, and we switch perspective from the hunters to the hunted's feet. The feverish heat of the detective's surroundings coarses through the film and adds so much to the atmosphere and overwhelming tension. Moreover, despite being largely a thriller, and an incredibly taut one, it also manages to have quite an emotional impact with its ending. The final showdown is minimalist and yet all the more memorable for that.

I should also note that The Quiet Duel is another Kurosawa film from this period. It's a solid character study of a doctor (well played by Toshiro Mifune) who becomes infected with AIDs, but I'd only really recommend it to anyone who's a big fan of Kurosawa. It's not a bad film, I don't know if he was capable of doing a bad film, but it does not stand out much beyond being an acting showcase for Mifune (and I prefer his performance in Stray Dog anyway).