Review for Yasuzo Masumura's 'Red Angel' (aka 'Akai Tenshi', 1966).
There are certain things that might well be a given with regards war or romance films, and both elements are head to head within this particular film in a fashion that is both (on the surface) perfectly traditional, and yet also contains what Masumura fans would expect - a healthy level of deeper, more considered and unusual subject matter.
Masumura, in 'Red Angel' plays well on providing both whilst also giving each aspect of the story a potential spin or several clear alternative takes. The honesty of the romance at the films core is a likely daily desire from any human whether in the realms of film or not, the portrayal matches in a rather familiar fashion. Although it rings perfectly true, It also seems to come from a different place or perhaps several, one of guilt for Nurse Nishi's well-meaning humanitarian actions as well as the more familiar (though still unusual) perspective of the destruction and daily routine of war and from the duty of her superior, Doctor Okabe. War, being life-affirming when you are in such close proximity to it, is something that's shown here perhaps all too clearly and entirely intentionally in the gore-soaked locations used to set the romance within. People's boredom apparently needing to be satiated in any way possible, the most obvious desire to the average mind during such times being sexual desire, and subsequently the atmosphere plays with both erotic and disturbing (grotesque?) elements, as does the turning of events and actions upon themselves.
Although there are clear and irregular practices and occurences in the hospitals daily routine that Doctor Okabe and all the staff (including, but not solely, Nurse Nishi) would like to avoid but are ultimately controlled by, they're perhaps nothing in comparison to the potential guilt found in Nishi's work, this being the key misbalance and exaggeration of the psychology of the negativity in their lives; something which has seemed to backfire from her tale as she tells it. A series of events born of Nishi's caring for soldiers leads to events best not experienced or inflicted upon others, occurring by accident, desire to do good and not by design to be bad, the result being that a contrasting form or potential negligence against those which are far more questionable (but a lot less avoidable) bringing a difficult puzzle to consider - Nishi is perhaps as guilty as she is innocent, caring as she is damaging, perhaps one or the other in either respect.
Dr.Okabe is a surgeon called upon to work in extreme conditions, and in that respect he is far from alone and yet he's the one in ultimate control of others, the bodies (both damaged, wounded, and dead) are not distinguished between, instead shipped to a hospital to be processed for inadequate surgery or incinerated. Little medicine, materials or tools are available. In such conditions amputation for minor injuries has become commonplace, the limbs pile up and the men are crippled needlessly. A relentless and impossible fight of a comparatively small band of Japanese soldiers versus the huge population (human resources, troops) of China in turn battled by Japanese pride, causing a series of quandaries as to the extreme nature of the circumstances.
Okabe and his staff hide the amputees away from the Japanese public by order, not returning home and hinting at failure or lack of ability to cope, the soldiers intentionally wound themselves in order to avoid the inevitable death sentence of the front line, beds are taken up with people who could be returning to Japanese shores, and the spiral continues into a logic-less attempt to do the best despite all the contradicting policies. In among all the chaos, the relationship between ageing widower Okabe and young nurse Nishi grows in the periods of time they share together and is strengthened by their absence from one another for months at a time.
The frank nature of the sexual desire Nishi shows for Okabe (reciprocated; slight hints at a questionable relationship because of the status and age difference are potentially here), a morphine-dependant drug addict, and the opposing guilt she feels for the results of her humanitarian work, the predictable solutions to counter-act the horror of their daily routine is played upon in a twisting fashion that sits well between familiar and daring originality. Compromises made add to the rich story and allow Masumura to pull you into to a more daring discussion, the battle sequences are minimal and make the scene that's set feel removed or remotely connected to the war itself, the lack of a cast and locations make the scenes intense and intimate and yet they break open into moments on a slightly larger scale.
As the film progresses, Okabe and Nishi look less like unlikely bedfellows and more like those destined to meet, yet Masumura manages to keep the horrors both have undergone, intentionally or accidentally, seem to contradict the honesty with which their love seems to grow for one another. Either there's no honesty to be found in love, there's the possibility of multiple perspectives on how genuine it is from either involved party as it progresses (or indeed from those observing it) or they've found a love that survives the potentially unavoidable failings of human nature.
As a film, a story, it's a small and touching tale that doesn't outstay it's welcome. Tightly told, yet drifting in romantic swathes, and as equally harrowing for it's graphic portrayal of amputations, the disposal of corpses (and life), the cold and calculating yet seemingly logical natural selection of Okabe's responsibilities as it is for the heart-warming humanity shown between key characters at regular intervals. Numerous ways to see this story on its path, yet it would seem to end in a fairly familiar terminal one-perspective fashion. Photography is rich and claustrophobic, at times too dark to truly get a sense of all the detail of the bustling field hospitals and surrounding buildings, the mood is enclosed and remote, intimate too. Discussed from numerous angles without feeling contrived, unnatural or under control, the result is something very human perhaps beyond what might typically be expected. Playing well on both familiar elements, finding new ways of seeing them, and working on new ideas, explorations, the film is another fine example of Masumura's talent at crafting an idea into a whole greater than the sum of it's parts. Deceptively simply it may be, familiarly so though, and interestingly natural and unnatural in equal measure.
Yasuzo Masumura Article by Joshua Rosenbaum at Chicago Reader.
Yasuzo Masumura Article at Answers.com.
Fantoma's R1 USA DVD (which I bought, and watched) stands up better in comparison to the recent R2 UK DVD. The PAL DVD is said to be an NTSC conversion, the print looks to be the same (displays the same minimal damage) and although the film has a very dark look to it, it's a sometimes difficult film to see because of that, it's a preferable choice to go for the R1 USA because of the individual effort that's displayed; it's also considerably cheaper than the only other subtitles alternative of the UK DV. See the DVDBeaver Visual Comparison of these two editions.
