Red Angel
赤い天使
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A wartime nurse gives her body to the dying and to a morphine-addicted surgeon — Masumura's harshest film on care and use.
In 1939 Sakura Nishi arrives as an army nurse at the military hospital in Tianjin. A few nights later, on her rounds after lights-out, she is raped by several patients. Two months on she is posted to a field hospital near the front under the surgeon Okabe. The wounded arrive by the truckload, operations run day and night, and the box beside the operating table fills with amputated limbs. Among the dying she finds Private Sakamoto, one of the men who raped her. Okabe judges him beyond saving and refuses a transfusion; Nishi begs him to try, and he agrees on condition that she come to his room that night. Sakamoto dies. When she goes to Okabe, he only wants to drink French wine and talk, and to have her give him his morphine, which is how he keeps going.
Back in Tianjin she meets Private Orihara, whose life Okabe saved at the cost of both his arms. Out of pity she gets him a pass, takes him to a hotel room and gives herself to him, believing it her duty to make him feel a man again. The next day he takes his own life. Returning to the front, she learns that morphine has left Okabe impotent. She tries to cure him; she has come to love him.
Okabe is sent forward with a small medical team, and Nishi goes with him. Before they reach their post they are trapped in a village surrounded by Chinese troops, where cholera has broken out and the radio is dead. On what they know may be their last night, the two lock themselves in a room and she holds him down through his withdrawal until dawn. When he comes back to himself they make love. Then the attack comes, and the unit is wiped out. When Japanese reinforcements arrive, Nishi, the only survivor, is found holding Okabe's body.
Starring
Ayako Wakaoas Sakura Nishi
A young army nurse posted to China in 1939, raped by patients in her first days, who goes on caring for the men around her however she can.
Sakura Nishi’s story
Nishi arrives at the army hospital in Tianjin in 1939, and a few nights later several patients rape her on her rounds. At a field hospital near the front she finds one of them, Sakamoto, among the dying and begs the surgeon, Okabe, to try to save him; he agrees if she will come to his room, where he wants only wine, talk and morphine. Sakamoto dies. Believing it her duty, she spends a night in a hotel with Private Orihara, who has lost both arms; the next day he takes his own life. She comes to love Okabe and tries to cure the impotence morphine has left him with. Trapped in a village ringed by Chinese troops, she holds him down through his withdrawal until dawn, and they make love. The attack comes. She alone survives, holding his body.
Shinsuke Ashidaas Dr Okabe
The surgeon who amputates without end at the front and gets through it on morphine, which has left him impotent.
Dr Okabe’s story
Okabe runs a field hospital where the wounded arrive by the truckload and he amputates day and night, judging coolly who can be saved. He refuses Nishi's plea for a transfusion for a dying man, Sakamoto, then relents on condition that she come to his room; there he asks only for French wine, talk and a shot of morphine, which keeps him going and has left him impotent. She comes to love him and tries to cure him. Sent forward with a small team, he is trapped in a cholera-stricken village surrounded by Chinese troops. On what may be their last night he locks himself in a room with Nishi, who holds him down through his withdrawal until dawn. Then they make love. He is killed in the attack, and she is found holding his body.
Yusuke Kawazuas Private Orihara
A soldier whose arms were amputated to save his life, with whom Nishi spends a night out of pity.
Jotaro Senbaas Private Sakamoto
One of the patients who raped Nishi, brought back to her field hospital with a mortal wound.
Why it matters
Red Angel is a war film seen from the operating table, and it spares nothing: amputation after amputation, men dying for want of blood, a nurse raped in her first days who must later nurse one of the men who did it. Yasuzo Masumura shot it in black and white, in a flat, practical register that refuses heroics. The issues are consent under military hierarchy, what care costs the carer, and a woman's body treated by everyone around her, and at times by herself, as army property to be used up. Abroad it has found strong admirers: Jonathan Rosenbaum called it the most powerful Masumura film he had seen, while warning that it was not for anyone bound by political correctness. What it will not settle is whether Nishi's giving of herself is a kind of freedom, or the last thing the war takes from her.