…I know it’s been almost deathly quiet here, but there are reasons. One is that I’m still knee deep in doing 1-2 posts a week over at Nine Circles as we slightly re-configure ourselves over there. Lots of good content, and this week I have a lengthy post covering the latest releases from Bruce Dickinson and Judas Priest, so if metal’s your bag check it out.

But what I really wanted to mention is that over at Cinema Dual, the film site I share with my buddy Jon we have a new twice-monthly series where we’re looking at the entire filmography of Akira Kurosawa, who was the common impetus for us not only falling in love with film, but also for starting a podcast we’re now four and half years into. We just wrapped up Drunken Angel, which comes out on April 15th, and here’s a brief preview of my initial thoughts on the film:

I’m not sure you could have asked for a better entrance for Mifune in Kurosawa’s oeuvre. Another great example of commenting on post-war Japan without specifically making it the center of the story, Drunken Angel is almost athletic in its exuberance, from Shimura’s extroverted performance as the titular character, an alcoholic doctor treating patients in the polluted ghettos of Tokyo to Mifune’s beastial entrance as the gangster fighting between his nature and his environment as a gang boss suffering from tuberculosis. When the two are paired together it’s absolute magic, something Kurosawa obviously gleaned immediately since so much of what we’ll cover for the rest of this year has the two actors featuring in almost all his films.

Something Like a Filmography: Drunken Angel (1948)

Anyway, there’s lots of writing to be found if you’re interested, and I AM (promise!) getting ready to start up here as well – there’s just so many records and not enough time to listen, you know?