Dr. Akagi (1998)
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94% of critics liked it
(17 reviews) -
66% of users liked it
(788 ratings)
Following up on his acclaimed and Cannes Grand Prix-winning Unagi, veteran iconoclast Shohei Imamura directs this gleefully ragged tale about one very dedicated, though defiantly eccentric, doctor during the waning days of the Second World War. Dr. Akagi (Akira Emoto) is a small-town physician who… More Following up on his acclaimed and Cannes Grand Prix-winning Unagi, veteran iconoclast Shohei Imamura directs this gleefully ragged tale about one very dedicated, though defiantly eccentric, doctor during the waning days of the Second World War. Dr. Akagi (Akira Emoto) is a small-town physician who sports a prim white suit and straw hat as he runs at full gallop from one case to the next. His diagnosis is always the same no matter the symptom: hepatitis. Along the way, he enlists the help of a young lass named Sonoko (Kumiko Asou) whose mother is a prostitute. Before she leaves home, mom gives her this kernel of maternal wisdom: give your physical devotion away to only your true love, make everyone else pay. She decides that the lucky recipient will be Dr. Akagi. Unfortunately, he has little interest in anything other than finding a cure for hepatitis. One day he happens upon a bruised and battered Dutch soldier (Jacques Gamblin) who escaped from the local POW camp. Realizing that returning to the camp would spell death for the lanky escapee, the doctor hides him with the aid of drug-addled fellow doctor (Kotsuke Sera) and an alcoholic Buddhist priest (Juro Kara). In gratitude to Dr. Akagi's kind act, the Dutchman, a lens crafter in quieter times, helps to fashion him a microscope so that the doctor may look at the very hepatitis germ itself. This film was intended as Imamura's swansong, but in 2001 he came out of retirement to direct the surrealist romance Akai Hashi Noshitano Nurui Mizu. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Directed By
- Shohei Imamura
- Genres
- Art House & International, Comedy
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Sep 28, 1998 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Accomplished at expressing the complexities of human nature and emotions, Imamura has captured a sense of timelessness to the extent that we all but forget the time and place.
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J. Hoberman, Village Voice
As lively, irreverent, and bizarrely cheerful as any of Imamura's previous low-life sagas.
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Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle
Confirms for anyone who saw The Eel that here is one of world cinema's great humanists.
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Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee
A daring mix of humor and sadness.
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Janet Maslin, New York Times
It does make [Imamura], in his mid-70's, arguably the youngest-hearted filmmaker in Japan.
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Cast
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Akira Emoto
as Dr. Akagi
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Kumiko Aso
as Sonoko
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Juro Kara
as Umemoto
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Masanori Sera
as Toriumi
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Jacques Gamblin
as Piet
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Keiko Matsuzaka
as Tomiko
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Misa Shimizu
as Gin
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Yukiya Kitamura
as Sankichi
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Masa Yamada
as Masuyo
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Tomoro Taniguchi
as Nosaka
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Masatô Ibu
as Ikeda
- Nae Yuuki
- Masato Yamada
- Tomorowo Taguchi
