Watch Dr. Akagi For Free

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Vengeance of Mine was my first exposure to Shohei Imamura, a tautly amazing movie full of dark humor, fearful violence, sexual tension and deep questions about life (note: this movie, among any other, absolutely deserves to be released on DVD). Dr. Akagi explores many of the same themes from the angle of a more dignified and admirable protagonist, a widower physician in a small fishing village whose life work is to tend to the many locals who are falling ill with hepatitis, a disease whose pathology and means of transmission are not yet understood. It also presents an interesting view of wartime Japan in a village removed from the immediate devastation of the war, how life goes on as it typically does but with the war slowly intruding more and more into the people's daily lives until it literally explodes above their heads. The director's great talent, in my opinion, is how he never judges his subjects, whether because the person is a whore, a morphine addict, an embezzler, a dissolute drunkard or pervert. He depicts them as they are. The characters and situations depicted in this movie seem to me very authentic representations of the Japanese character, in its multiplicity, and that's part of what makes it a delight to watch. Dr. Akagi is the most intriguing one of all the characters, as he goes through not one but two personal transformations in the movie that are so subtle at first that you fail to notice them until the movie comes together neatly at the end yet leaves the question, what motivates us to do the things that we do in life, what's our purpose in life and what keeps us alive. Of course, the answer is never clear, and the movie does not shy from that reality. The cinematography is also very nice, especially the scenes with the whale at the end which are simply beautiful and imbued with mythos in a scene in which director wonderfully transforms the village whore and daughter of a fisherman into the mythical woman that reawakens Dr. Akagi to his life. Beautifully done. Only complaint: the jazz soundtrack is a bit overly intrusive and excessive. That should have been toned down a bit, but otherwise, a very moving and poignant film.

*MINOR SPOILERS* The sneakiest film I've seen in quite a while - at first viewing, I was almost put off by the surface looseness of DR AKAGI, but for several days I kept reflecting back on several key scenes. So I rented it again, and have come to consider this a great film. Imamura's trademark of "showing people as they are, rather than what we would like them to be" is on vivid display here - as with THE EEL and WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE, the quirks and eccentricities of the characters (in this case, a crusading doctor battling a hepatitis outbreak that may be a mere reflection of an obsessive mind, a morphine-addicted surgeon, a former prostitute, and a lecherous alcoholic monk) aren't just allowed, but are viewed as essential components of identity, and the depiction of such eccentricities is the only way to capture a true community in all of its' ragged glory. Inherent in this kind of depiction is an unshakeable confidence that even the most deeply flawed human beings have (or are capable) of acting on principle and conviction if sufficiently moved to do so. Thus, the story, swings from poetic to tragic to hilarious to disturbing at the drop of a hat, and Imamura's confident mastery in managing all of this (perhaps rivaling even Fellini) makes him one of the greats. It should also be noted that - though his style and worldview are both extremely different - Imamura, like his one-time mentor Yasujiro Ozu, makes films that look like no one else's, with an unhurried, careful eye that somehow manages to make even the debris of the stories he relates take on a quality of human necessity. An excellent and very rewarding film.

Alas! I was hoping for more, actually thought there was something in store///Especially in troubled Japan, near the end of the Second World War./// Will the enemy avoid us or fight us/// If we contract typhoid or hepatitis?/// This movie is worst than just sore, this movie is one giant bore.

Imamura Shohei has come in to his prime at a point when most directors of his age begin their downward spiral. Along with his completely different although equally impressive film, "Unagi (the eel)" (1997) Imamura has made two of the greatest films of the 1990s. This particular entry into the Imamura canon deals with a Kyushu doctor during WWII. Of course, the film goes way beyond just that; it's a film that cannot be summed up in words, it's the kind of movie that you sit back and enjoy and you come out of smiling, for you've been entertained in a way most films cannot. "Kanzo Sensei" affects like a truly satisfying book does, something most films cannot come close to copying. If you dig it, rent "the eel" and look out for his next work coming soon to a theatre far from you and me--Japan. Let's hope his next one is as good as his last two, and that it is released in theatrically in the US. Highly recommended.