Drunken Angel: Jungle Boogie and other music (6 posts)

I've been listening to Donald Richie's commentary on the Criterion edition of Drunken Angel and found his comments on the nightclub scene and the Jungle Boogie song amusing - I have to be honest that I also find the scene rather embarrassing and the singer rather horrid, though perhaps that is the point that Kurosawa wants us to take from the scene. On my first viewing of Drunken Angel, I thought the music appropriate because it seems to comment on the kind of jungle-like, dog-eat-dog world of the sump.

However, after watching the Sorensen documentary, I wonder whether Kurosawa might be using the song to stand for all that is cheap and worthless about the occupation's culture (and of course its influence on Japanese popular culture). Richie mentions in his commentary that Kurosawa had his "top 10" of classical pieces, which resulted in the Bolero-style music of Rashomon, the Debussy style music here, and doubtless other examples (my knowledge of classical music is too scant to take Richie's point further). So, one could not say that Kurosawa was opposed to western culture, because he obviously was fond of so much of it (highbrow and lowbrow). But what about the sort of popular jazz represented here? It seems wanton and promiscuous, so apt for the modern yakuza world. In a film structured so much on opposites, is this intended to be set against the beauty of the finale's redemption music, and to stand for everything that is seductive and deadly about western culture, a culture without decorum or restraint?

Of course there is much more music in the film, and much more to say on the subject. The guitar music seems particularly fine to me, but I wonder to what extent its presence may also be considered to be Kurosawa criticizing the occupation's culture. Personally I find the dirge-like tune Okada picks out one of the most beautiful in the film, but is it again another symbol of foreign influence? I think it is Sorensen who mentions that Kurosawa had originally wanted to use Mack the Knife. And the guitar: perhaps Kurosawa associates the figure of a serenading guitar player with American culture? Were guitars and troubadours part of Japanese culture already? This, and the slick-back hair of Mifune, reminds me of the world of the greaser, which by 1948 was just about to emerge as a subculture.

Anyone actually like the Jungle Boogie sequence, and any thoughts on whether Kurosawa is being critical of western popular music?

Hi Jon,
Yes, I love the Jungle Boogie sequence. It isn't the music, though, it is the transformation of Mifune.

In fact, I am absolutely mesmerized by Mifune's dance. I keep wanting Kurosawa to cut from the singer to more of Mifune so that I can locate the source of htis terrifying energy. He is like Frankenstein dancing...and is actually scary...both repellent and attractive. I usually stop the dvd and replay the scene several times. It is impossible to locate exactly where the transformation occurs...but that quick shot at the end where Mifune raises his arms...whoah. Intense. Scary. Cool as hell.

Mesmerizing is the right word. I find the scene grotesque and embarrassing, as I said, but I have to admit that I can't look away when Mifune is doing his gorilla act. I love the way Kurosawa then cuts to Mifune and Shimura battling with one another, as if completing the dance.

Good call on the cut to the battle.

Embarrassing, yes...you're right, there's that, too. Lots going on in that scene, Mifune shaking his ass (Truly shocking! Grotesque! Embarassing! Watching makes ME feel drunk and sick and I can't look away) and the nightclub singer putting her hand to her mouth calling..."ooooowaaaa"...collides West/East and High/Low and Then/Now.

And I think, after all, indie hipster cliches have their roots somewhere, right? I mean, this kind of music has an historical knowledge-base cache' now. But, then, was just one of those cultural translations showing influence but still looking kinda odd and "off". Like a teenager in Cleveland affecting a British Accent 'cuz he liked the Beatles in the 60's. Cringe-worthy. But, real, dude. You know that thing about Kurosawa not looking away? Here's a great example. Looking squarely at things that make us cringe.

One of my favorite things about gendai-geki Kurosawa is this freezing of the moment of cultural acquisition with all the awkwardness, ugliness and absurdity intact. I value this in Kurosawa very highly. Embarassing-you said it! But, really, really cool and interesting.

MUSIC
Kurosawa had the concept of this intersection of moods and meanings, and an attitude toward the use of music that was counter to "accompaniement"-music played a role in the scene sometimes as strong as an actor-a role that sometimes even contradicted the mood of the scene-as a "mutual multiplier" (Kurosawa's phrase). You've probably read his comments on the topic in his "Something Like an Autobiography" wher he talks extensively about the "Cuckoo Waltz" in regards to this film.

Donald Richie, heaven bless the man, gave us so much writing about Kurosawa, and some of it is beyond wonderful...but, he has his blind spots as we all do, and I think he underestimates Kurosawa's musicality. Richie only sees the big themes, and I've seen an interview where he actually said, "Kurosawa had a tin ear" (Richie thinks that the "Bolero"-like music in Rashomon is crap. But, even if one has the initial "I've heard this somewhere before" feeling, it goes away pretty quickly, and you feel the heat, participate in the film in a way you probably might not without the music). Richie doesn't see the nuanced bits- he doesn't notice the contrasts thematically throughout a film such as "Drunken Angel"-really, the variety of music in "Drunken Angel" is rich, complex, wide-ranging...isn't it? Everything from the Jungle Boogie scene to the "Cuckoo Waltz" to that haunting, lovely guitar solo to the finale.

Lotus, right? Emerging from the mud, clean. Art.

(I think it would be interesting to compare Ozu's use of music with Kurosawa's.

Indeed, a good point about the cut, Jon!

I myself have quite mixed feelings about Jungle Boogie, and have never been able to decide whether I should feel embarrassed about it or enjoy it as an excellent playful wink of an eye from Kurosawa. Apparently, Kurosawa at least cared enough about the song to write the lyrics himself.

The girl singing it is simply brilliant, though, in a very camp sort of a way. Like Yippee, I also really enjoy Mifune's performance here.

As for the guitar playing, I personally tend to get a very "European" feel from it, rather than American. That opening scene could well be from an Italian or a French film of the time.

I have also wondered about how big a part of Japan guitars were at that point. Sanada thinks that it is a mandolin, which according to Wikipedia is an instrument that has been very popular in Japan since before WW2.

Meanwhile, according to this page, "in 1944 the steel guitar and banjo was outlawed", so perhaps that is why Sanada thinks that it is a mandolin and not a guitar. Another sign of the times changing.

By the way, according to the same page, popular jazz had apparently been in Japan already since the 1920s, but was pretty much reintroduced after the war, so a connection between Jungle Boogie and the Occupation is indeed possible.

Great post Jon, I too find it a bit embarrassing, but I think it the point. We are feeling the embarrassment that a non-drunken Matsunaga should be feeling.

I find this scene very good, I quite enjoy the singing and the acting in it.

Being a WWI and WWII history buff, I recall reading about Jazz in Japan long ago. And to my knowledge jazz was introduced via the British around the 1910's when they asked for Japan's help in WWI. After WWI and the disappearance of the British, a demand was created and they started to receive jazz from America in the 1920's via various attempt trade agreements. At this time it really took off in Japan. Toward the 1930's with Japan militaristic ways increasing, non-Japanese material was all but gone. After WWII and the return of the American awareness, Jazz took off again as a something modern, something new, something Japan had nothing of.

I would say a connection of the boogie with the occupation is made, there are very subtle things that appears Kurosawa made regarding the occupation without showing the occupation. Its role in the film, or its importance if any, I dont really know.