(by alice_frye on 10 May 2007)

Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard (Akahige) is probably my favorite filmed drama. I watch it when I am feeling hopeless or deeply depressed, because the message of the movie is so wonderfully humanistic. So imagine my surprise when, watching Drunken Sword, I realized that this film was an earlier attempt to tell the same story, that of an honorable and dedicated doctor who takes a conceited young doctor under his wing for further training and reality testing.
In Drunken Sword, there is more comedic content than its successor, but the viewer who is familiar with Red Beard will recognize many of the same scenes and plot twists. And of course, Ichikawa Utaemon lacked the power and subtlety of Toshiro Mifune in the lead role. Red Beard also lacks the over-arching villainy that Konoe Jushiro brings to Drunken Sword.
Drunken Sword is a very enjoyable movie on its own, but I was most fascinated by comparing the way that the master Kurosawa handled the story line versus this more light-hearted telling by director Sawashima.