Postwar Kurosawa: The Quiet Duel

The Quiet Duel (静かなる決闘)1949, DaieiProd. Soujiro Motoki, Hisao IchikawaDir. Akira Kurosawa Writer Senkichi Taniguchi, Akira Kurosawa, Cinematography  Souichi Aizaka, Music Akira IfukubeToshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Kenjiro Uemura, Miki Sanjo, Noriko Sengoku In March 1948, Kurosawa, Soujiro Motoki, Kajiro Yamamoto and Senkichi Taniguchi formed “Eiga Geijutu Kyoukai (Cinema Art Society)”. Toho was at the last stage of Labor Union Conflict at the time and not a good place to direct a film. Kurosawa was deeply disappointed with the Union movement and left Toho for Daiei to direct his next film. “The Quiet Duel” is based on popular stage play, “Abortion Doctor”, by …

Postwar Kurosawa: Drunken Angel

On August 20th 1945, only 5 days after the surrender of the Imperial Japan, the first (black) market opened in Shinjuku. This Shinjuku Market was a community of open-air, primitive merchants. In following months, the similar black markets opened in many key locations around Tokyo and other major cities in Japan. The operator of such black markets were tekiya (a sort of mafia/yakuza which specializes in open-air markets (1)), who supplied various merchandise to those shops, provided the protection and controlled the prices. The Shinjuku Market was operated and protected by Kanto Ozu-Gumi, the Shinjuku local tekiya. Territorial conflicts among …

Postwar Kurosawa: One Wonderful Sunday

Let’s put this film in proper perspective. Do you remember the adorable kids, two brothers in Ozu’s “I Was Born But…”? Take one of them, say, the elder brother, let him grow older, let him have a sweet girlfriend, put him in soldiers uniform, send him to South Pacific islands or Indochina, let him fight against Americans or Australians, let him starve for a year or two, and let him survive. The war is over. He is now back in Japan. Here is your guy in this film. What happened to his salary-man father and gentle mother? Remember what he …