Drunken Angel

In post war Japan Dr. Sanada (Takashi Shimura) runs a clinic on the edge of a sewage dump on a slum-ridden area of the city, attempting to deal with the ills and sickness of the citizenry as best as he can with a limited ration of medical goods. One evening Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune) a young man comes to him with an injured left hand telling the doctor that he caught the hand in a door. When Sanada operates he discovers a bullet is lodged in the hand and realizes that he is dealing with a young gangster from the neighborhood. Sanada sees something of himself in the proud Matsunaga and when he notices a persistent cough from the young thug examines him further and discovers a problem with one of the young man's lungs and instruct him to get X-rays to be sure. Matsunaga angrily reacts, accusing the doctor of trying to swindle him and storms out. Eventually Sanada convinces Matsunaga to take a cure for the lingering Tuburculosis that he has contracted, but when the former gang boss Okada (Reisaburo Yamamoto) returns from prison and reforms his former gang he pulls Matsunaga into a life of debauchery with smoking and drinking which causes his health to fall drastically. At one point when Matsunaga begins coughing up blood, Okada steals his girl and kicks him out of the gang, while Sanada attempts to convince the young proud gangster to stop in order to save his own life. As an act of reaffirming his place as a virile presence Matsunaga rises from his sick bed and confronts Okada.