Review of Dr. Akagi

Imamura Sohei's Kanzo Sensei (Dr Akagi) is reminiscent of Kurosawa Akira's Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi). In Kanzo Sensei, Dr. Akagi struggles with the disease that exacts heavy tolls on the Japanese during wartime. There is the sense that the onset of the disease is almost karmatic; people should know to eat well and sleep well, but—because of the country's involvement in the war—are only allowed to do so when they are diagnosed with hepatitis. The patients make the "best of it," getting their basic human psychological and physical needs met. Relaxation and rest brings people back to their human essence and reclaims their health. The sickness is likened to a psychological sickness—"hepatitis of the mind." We see this in Masumura Yasuzo's Kyojin to gangu (Giants and Toys) where the Japanese have been taken over by the Western principles of capitalism and consumerism. In Yoidore tenshi, the benevolent doctor is somewhat over concerned for his patient, who suffers dually from hepatitis and also—as a yakuza—from the cesspool that Japan has become after the occupation. In both Kanzo Sensei and Yoidore tenshi, the doctor is more of a symbol of the medicinal power of compassion; deeply concerned for their patients, the doctors provide not surgery but the common-sense advice to sleep well and maintain a good diet—to understand how society is plagued.