The Silent Duel ( The Quiet Duel ) ( Shizukanaru kettô )

The Silent Duel (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: The Quiet Duel
Alternate Title: Shizukanaru kettô
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
Japanese ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
94 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1949 and produced in:
Japan ( India, Eastern Asia )

Directed By:
Akira Kurosawa

Written By:
Akira Kurosawa
Kazuo Kikuta

Actors:
Toshirô Mifune ..... Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki
Takashi Shimura ..... Dr. Konosuke Fujisaki
Miki Sanjô ..... Misao Matsumoto
Kenjiro Uemura ..... Susumu Nakada
Chieko Nakakita ..... Takiko Nakada
Noriko Sengoku ..... Apprentice Nurse Rui Minegishi
Jyonosuke Miyazaki ..... Cpl. Horiguchi
Isamu Yamaguchi ..... Patrolman Nosaka
Shigeru Matsumoto ..... Boy with appendicitis
Hiroko Machida ..... Nurse Imai
Kan Takami ..... Laborer
Kisao Tobita ..... Boy with typhoid
Shigeyuki Miyajima ..... Officer
Tadashi Date ..... Father of boy with appendicitis
Etsuko Sudo ..... Mother of boy with appendicitis

Synopsis:

In 1944, in WWII, Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki cuts his finger with the scalpel during a surgery in a field hospital and is infected by spirochete from his patient Susumu Nakada. After the blood test, he realizes that he has contracted syphilis, but he does not have the necessary medicine to treat the disease. He advises Nakada to seek medical treatment for his disease. In 1946, after the war, he breaks off his six years engagement with his beloved fiancée Misao Matsumoto but he does not tell the truth but lets her go and find another man to get married. The hopeless apprentice, nurse Rui Minegishi, witnesses Kioji injecting Salvarsan to treat his syphilis, and first she misunderstands why the doctor is sick. Later, after discovering the truth about his disease, she changes her behavior and becomes the confident listener of the doctor's inner feelings. When Kyoji accidentally meets Nakada in the police station of his town and finds that his wife is pregnant, he warns the reckless man about the risk of his lack of responsibility to his wife and baby.

A dedicated army surgeon finds his once-bright future suddenly obscured when he contracts syphilis while performing a life-saving operation in this early collaboration between director Akira Kurosawa and Toshirô Mifune. Contaminated with a disease that was virtually incurable in 1940s Japan, Fujisaki returns home from the war to work presided over by his obstetrician father (Takashi Shimura). As Fujisaki furtively agonizes over the havoc that the disease will wreck on his upcoming marriage, his noble attempts to save the lives of his many patients masks a silent desperation that will likely remain with him to his final hour.

This 1949 rarely-seen masterpiece from legendary director Akira Kurosawa has never-before been released in the UK. During a life-saving operation young army surgeon Fujisaki (Mifune) contracts syphilis from a patient, a disease virtually incurable in 1940's Japan, and is forced to abandon his own true love. Based on an acclaimed play by Kazuo Nikuta, The Silent Duel marked the second of numerous collaborations between the director and leading man Toshiro Mifune.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 14 February, 2012.