The World Cinema Series continues at The Strand Theatre in Hudson Falls Thursday March 27th at 7pm.
I'll be hosting a FREE screening of Akira Kurosawa's first masterpiece, (and his first of sixteen memorable collaborations with the legendary Toshiro Mifune!) "Drunken Angel" released in April of 1948! This film was made during the American occupation of Japan and Kurosawa slipped in several references to this which slipped past the censors. Some examples: Kurosawa was not allowed to show a burned out building in his "black market slum" set, but he did feature the poisonous bog at the center of the district (which acts like a character itself), English signage wasn't allowed either, but he was able to sneak some in past the censors! Apparently though he did have a more "gruesome" ending that he had to changed and the film had a 150 minute runtime that was trimmed down to 98 minutes! Today we would've seen a "Director's Cut" but alas the 150 minute version was never released and no known print is known to exist!
All the political stuff aside, this is an unforgettable snapshot of Japan post-WW2 and a unique take on the gangster picture like we've never seen before or since! Definitely a film that needs to be seen by more people. Kurosawa was a one-of-a-kind filmmaker and two years after this, he released "Rashomon" and from there he became known not as only one of Japan's best filmmakers, but one of the best worldwide!!!
