The Silent Duel

If Akira Kurosawa’s first foray into police procedurals Stray Dog could
arguably be referred to as something of a dress rehearsal for his later
masterpiece, Hi... more >

If Akira Kurosawa’s first foray into police procedurals Stray Dog could
arguably be referred to as something of a dress rehearsal for his later
masterpiece, High & Low, and Sanshiro Sugata (an early samurai flick) a
dress rehearsal for the later, more masterful Yojimbo and Sanjuro, then
early hospital drama The Silent Duel could very well be said to be
Kurosawa’s dry run for Red Beard, thought by many commentators to be among the big man’s finest hour. Teaming Kurosawa with Toshiro Mifune for the second time following 1948’s Drunken Angel, The Silent Duel concerns an idealistic doctor who contracts syphilis whilst performing an operation. Whilst the film lacks the sense of narrative cohesion familiar to viewers of more typical Golden Age Kurosawa, as with Stray Dog there are set pieces that more than compensate for the admission fee: the opening scene where Mifune conducts surgery in the kind of downpour familiar to viewers of Rashomon is a prime example. All told, The Silent Duel is a must-see for any Kurosawa fan (or indeed any fan of Japanese cinema!).
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Cast

Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura

Technical Details