The first of Kurosawa’s films to feature the indomitable Toshiro Mifune is, not surprisingly, also his strongest early work—the first film that, in his own words, allowed him to find his cinematic voice. This is largely because he was able to make it one his own terms, even though he had to allow some concessions to the occupying American censors (namely the out-of-place optimistic ending). Like the American film noir that surely inspired it, Drunken Angel deals with the gritty, ugly underbelly of postwar society, which Kurosawa literalizes with a fetid cesspool while also allowing for a level of character complexity that belies his usual emphasis on unproblematic good vs. evil. (DVD)