One of the few really good Japanese movies, made shortly after WWII (1948) when Japan was mostly rubble. Good depiction of the poverty and devastation of post-war Japan. Surprsingly good acting as well. Japanese actors are generally mediocre at best; but the actors playing the main characters in Drunken Angel (an alcoholic doctor and a TB-infected thug) are great. Closer to Italian neo-realist cinema than the Samurai dramas of Kurosawa's later work.
