The Quiet Duel
The Quiet Duel | |
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Directed by | Akira Kurosawa[1] |
Written by | Senkichi Taniguchi Akira Kurosawa |
Produced by | Sōjirō Motoki Hisao Ichikawa |
Starring | Toshiro Mifune Takashi Shimura |
Cinematography | Soichi Aisaka |
Music by | Akira Ifukube |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Daiei Film |
Release dates | March 13, 1949 (Japan) 1983 (USA) |
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
The Quiet Duel (静かなる決闘, Shizukanaru Kettō) is a 1949 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It was the second of sixteen film collaborations between director Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune.
Plot
Toshiro Mifune plays Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki, a young idealistic doctor who, during the war, contracts syphilis from the blood of a patient (Kenjiro Uemura) when he cuts himself during an operation.
Contaminated with this infectious, typically shameful and then virtually incurable disease, Fujisaki returns home from the war to the clinic presided over by his obstetrician father (Takashi Shimura). He comes into contact with the patient who contaminted him, in the process seeing the consequences of ignoring the disease. Treating himself in secret with Salvarsane and tormented by his sense of injustice, he rejects his fiancée of six years Misao, (Miki Sanjō) without explanation, as he does not wish her to have to wait for a number of years until he is cured. Heartbroken, Misao becomes engaged to another man. She makes one last plea to Fujisaki but he stands firm in rejecting her.
Cast
- Toshiro Mifune as Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki
- Miki Sanjō as Misao Matsumoto
- Takashi Shimura as Dr. Konosuke Fujisaki
- Kenjiro Uemura as Susumu Nakada
- Isamu Yamaguchi as Patrolman Nosaka
- Noriko Sengoku as Apprentice Nurse Rui Minegishi
- Chieko Nakakita as Takiko Nakada
- Kenichi Miyajima as the Dealer
- Masateru Sasaki as the Old Soldier
- Seiji Izumi as the Policeman
- Tadashi Date as the father of the boy with appendicitis
- Shigeyuki Miyajima as the Officer
Production
The film was mostly shot on a soundstage
Home video
The Quiet Duel was released on DVD in the US by BCI Eclipse, as the first title in their "Director's Series". It was never released in UK cinemas but was released on DVD in the UK in 2006 under the title of "The Silent Duel".
References
External links
- The Quiet Duel at IMDb
- 1983 Review of film at New York Times
- The Quiet Duel at Akira Kurosawa Info
- Review of film at Hackwriters
- 1949 films
- 1940s drama films
- Japanese films
- Japanese drama films
- Japanese black-and-white films
- Medical-themed films
- Daiei Film films
- Films directed by Akira Kurosawa
- Films produced by Sōjirō Motoki
- Screenplays by Akira Kurosawa
- Screenplays by Senkichi Taniguchi
- Films scored by Akira Ifukube
- 1940s drama film stubs
- Japanese film stubs
- 1940s film stubs