The Quiet Duel
The Quiet Duel (静かなる決闘, Shizukanaru Kettō) is a 1949 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa.
| The Quiet Duel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa[1] |
| Produced by | Sōjirō Motoki Hisao Ichikawa |
| Screenplay by | Senkichi Taniguchi Akira Kurosawa |
| Based on | The Abortion Doctor by Kazuo Kikuta |
| Starring | Toshiro Mifune Takashi Shimura |
| Music by | Akira Ifukube |
| Cinematography | Soichi Aisaka |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Daiei Film |
Release date | March 13, 1949 (Japan) |
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Plot
Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki, a young idealistic doctor who, during the war, contracts syphilis from the blood of a patient 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. He comes into contact with the patient who contaminated 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 Misao, his fiancée of six years, 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 Sanjo 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 U.S. by BCI Eclipse, as the first title in their "Director's Series". It was never released in U.K. cinemas, but was released on DVD in the U.K. in 2006 under the title "The Silent Duel".
References
External links
- The Quiet Duel on IMDb
- 1983 Review of film at New York Times
- The Quiet Duel at Akira Kurosawa Info
- Review of film at Hackwriters