Drunken Angel is an early Kurosawa film, billed as a film noir but playing more like a character study. The story follows Dr. Sanada (Shimura), a gruff physician working in a poverty-stricken district with a trash-infested swamp serving as the centerpiece for the village (and thematically probably much more, although I can't figure out what). He works not for money or prestige, but for the inherent reward of helping people in need. He begins an uneasy friendship with a gangster named Matsunaga (Mifune) after diagnosing him with tuberculosis. Tensions heighten when Okada (Yamamoto) returns from prison, declaring power over Matsunaga's turf and claiming ownership of a young woman who works for Dr. Sanada (Nakakita).
The movie is surprisingly unique, and for whatever reason I could not predict what would happen next. Kurosawa has a way of making movies that envelop you in them, that place you in the action, so that you enjoy the story instead of analyze it. Even so, I was disappointed in the film. Some characters were written flat while others felt like explosive caricatures. The titular doctor has an unusual habit of throwing bottles at his patients and calling them fools. The compositions were second-rate (made worse by the sub-standard Criterion transfer), the camerawork was shoddy, and the editing was choppy. Much of the medicine in the movie is unintentionally comic, likely because it is old medicine and not because of bad writing. Overall the movie just felt a little less put-together than his later films. You could see sparks of genius and the direction he wanted to take it, but without the proper tools to get him there. A fine effort, but there is much better Kurosawa to be had.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040979/