Journal

1. Response to Drunken Angel

The title is a very contradictory image, which the doctor embodies throughout the whole movie. His personality is split into the aggressive, mentally instable alcoholic on the one side and the doctor, who is supposed to save people, on the other side. These two personalities constantly conflict with each other. It is interesting to observe how, for example, he intentionally causes his patient pain in order to punish him. However, it also becomes clear that he indeed cares about his patient Chung as he advises him to quit smoking and drinking and get his lungs examined. Moreover, the doctor is a real hypocrite as he despises his patients’ drinking habits while he has a serious alcohol problem himself. It certainly seems as if the doctor hates his own flaws and wants to prevent young people like Chung from making the same mistakes as he did. He is certainly not malicious, but irritated and disappointed with society and humankind as he states that “everything is disgusting” and repeatedly calls others “animals”. However, he shows his good nature when he, for example, tells the little children not to drink the poisoned water or when he interacts very nicely with the young assistant in his office. All of those actions, including his caring for Chung, indicate a strong belief in youth. He is frustrated with his own life and the contaminated water serves as a symbol for his irritating life and the poisoned society that is destroyed by drugs and prostitution in the doctor’s eyes.

Although Chung fails at quitting his unhealthy lifestyle and his involvement with the gangs, other young characters represent great hope. Especially the final scene with the seventeen year old girl, who proudly shows her diploma to the doctor, appears so positive and refreshing in contrast to the brutalities between Chung, Kong, etc. She shows that it is extremely important to get a good education and stay away from drugs in order to succeed in life. She also makes the doctor smile and in somehow unfolds his good side. Throughout the movie the doctor’s character develops from being a brutal alcoholic into a witty caring man. Thus, in the end he is more on the “Angel” than on the “Drunken” side as young people have given him back his belief in life and humanity.

2. Response to “Darakuron” by Ango Sakaguchi

Sakaguchi’s “Darakuron” first irritated me just as the movie Drunken Angel did. It seems so shocking that the author, for example, “loved the magnificent destruction” of the bombings and also thinks that it is right for a woman to kill herself while she is still beautiful. After having thought about Sakaguchi’s message