This film of an alcoholic doctor treating a hoodlum begins very well, with the two leads giving effective, subtle performances. The movie creates a city with a lot of atmosphere. The cinematography is first rate.
Unfortunately the film takes a number of missteps towards the end, including a dumb dream sequence, a surprisingly disjointed, poorly filmed fight sequence, some decidedly zombieish makeup and a seemingly endless coda that drains most of the power out of the ending. The movie also ultimately doesn't seem to have much point to it; I just didn't feel at the end that there was any good reason to have made the film at all.
There's still enough Kurosawa magic to make this one worth watching, and it's really an excellent movie for over an hour. But it is not a very satisfactory movie.
Unfortunately the film takes a number of missteps towards the end, including a dumb dream sequence, a surprisingly disjointed, poorly filmed fight sequence, some decidedly zombieish makeup and a seemingly endless coda that drains most of the power out of the ending. The movie also ultimately doesn't seem to have much point to it; I just didn't feel at the end that there was any good reason to have made the film at all.
There's still enough Kurosawa magic to make this one worth watching, and it's really an excellent movie for over an hour. But it is not a very satisfactory movie.