Red Angel [Blu-ray]

Director: Yasuzo Masumura Yasuzo Masumura

Overview

Exploring many of the same themes of Robert Altman's MASH (1970), (albeit with completely distinct overtones), Akai Tenshi is a brutal portrayal of individuals clinging to their humanity while enduring the horrors of war. Set in 1939, the film concerns Sakura Nishi (Ayako Wakao), a fresh young nurse who works at a field hospital during Japan's ill-conceived advance into China. In spite of the waves of broken men arriving at the clinic and the primitive conditions at their disposal (amputation is the only treatment available), Nishi tries to heal both the physical and emotional wounds of those she encounters but runs into a series of harrowing difficulties as she tries to compete with the insanity of war.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/18/2022
UPC:	0760137808183
Original Release:	1966
Source:	Arrow Video
Language:	English
Time:	1:35:00
Sales rank:	5,227

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ayako Wakao	Sakura Nishi
Shinsuke Ashida	Dr. Okabe
Yasuke Kawazu	Private Orihara
Jotaro Senba	Actor

Technical Credits

Ryozo Kasahara

Yasuzo Masumura	Director
Ryozo Kasahara	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Intense, brutal and shocking, Akai Tenshi is an unsettling, powerful, engrossing and disturbing portrait of the true horrors inflicted upon those who serve "on the ground" in a war, in any capacity, as well as an indictment of societies in which individualism is sacrificed for a perceived common good. It is a brilliant masterpiece, but the kind of film that many viewers will find incredibly difficult to watch. It outrages and depresses at once, and it doesn't work itself into knots trying to find a Hollywood ending: the resolution of the film is an anti-resolution, in keeping with its portrait of the powerlessness of those who are placed in an untenable situation in which no choice is a good choice, only the possibly lesser of evils. And yet in the midst of all this, director Yasuzo Masumura and scenarist Ryozo Kasahara also manage to create moments of daring, thrilling eroticism; at times the erotic content takes on a hopeful spirit, only to eventually be crushed by an ultimate despondency. It's astonishing filmmaking, the work of an artist operating at the top of his form, and is of a complexity that is alien to so many films. Akai also benefits from the gorgeous yet frightening cinematography of Yoriyoshi Arima, which adds significantly to the film's visceral impact. A challenging, difficult work, Akai Tenshi must be seen.