The Quiet Duel (静かなる決闘, Shizukanaru Kettō) is a 1949 Japanese medical drama film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay he co-wrote with Senkichi Taniguchi.
Contents
Plot
The film centers on Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki, a young, idealistic doctor who, during his service as an army physician during World War II, contracted syphilis from the blood of a patient when he accidentally cut himself during an operation.
Contaminated with this infectious, typically shameful, and then-virtually incurable disease, Fujisaki returns home from the war to the clinic presided over by his obstetrician father, Dr. Konosuke Fujisaki. He comes into contact with the patient who contaminated him, in the process seeing the consequences of ignoring the disease. Treating himself in secret with Salvarsan and tormented by his sense of injustice for not being able to help the man, he rejects Misao, his fiancé of six years, without explanation, as he does not wish her to have to wait for a number of years until he is cured. Heartbroken, Misao becomes engaged to another man. She makes one last plea to Fujisaki, but he stands firm in rejecting her.
Cast
Toshiro Mifune as Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki
Miki Sanjo as Misao Matsumoto
Takashi Shimura as Dr. Konosuke Fujisaki
Kenjiro Uemura as Susumu Nakada
Isamu Yamaguchi as Patrolman Nosaka
Noriko Sengoku as apprentice nurse Rui Minegishi
Chieko Nakakita as Takiko Nakada
Kenichi Miyajima as the dealer
Masateru Sasaki as the old soldier
Seiji Izumi as the policeman
Tadashi Date as the father of the boy with appendicitis
Shigeyuki Miyajima as the officer
Production
Production was interrupted due to a lengthy strike at the Toho movie studio, and Kurosawa would ultimately finish the movie at rival studio Daiei. At that time Daiei also owned a baseball team, the Daiei Stars, whose players visited the movie set during filming.
Reception
According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film received three critic reviews rated 'Fresh', but did not receive enough reviews to earn a consensus.
Home video
The Quiet Duel was released on DVD in the U.S. by BCI Eclipse, as the first title in their "Director's Series". It was never released in U.K. cinemas, but was released on DVD in the U.K. in 2006 under the title "The Silent Duel".