Dr. Akagi film review

Dr. Akagi film review

Japan was one of the most hard-hit countries after the ending of the second world war. The country suffered not only the countless loss of lives in the form of military personnel but also through the nuclear bombing of two of its islands where countless innocent lives were lost so that the war could be over. Over the years, cinematic retelling of famous historical events has become popular, and many TV shows and films have been produced and directed to tell the story of war and the consequences it has the lives people as well as their society. Two films come to mind when it comes to Japan’s participation in the war. The comedy-drama, Dr. Akagi, directed by Shohei Imamura and the anime classic, Akira, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. Dr. Akagi focuses on Japan during the last moment of the Second World War, while Akira focuses on futuristic dystopian Japan after the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two films highlight the themes of abuse of power, nationalism, how conflict and wars affect both social structures, and the formation of interpersonal relationships.

The film, Dr. Akagi, is a unique film that focuses on the last days of the Second World War before Japan lost the war to the Allied Forces. The director of the film takes a different approach to make the film retell the story of the waning moments of the war through the use of comedy. The film by Shohei Imamura was released in 1998 and told the story of the Doctor Akira as he tries to find a cure for hepatitis, the disease that is slowly killing his patients. The film is set on the island Seto Inland Sea area during the Second World War. The doctor is in conflict with the military, who are reluctant to provide him with the necessary equipment and help to combat the hepatitis epidemic that is ravaging through his patients. The comedic scenes and music that is used by the director as Kanzo Sensei (liver doctor), as he is referred to by his patients, runs around the town to take care of his patients. With the relevant authorities failing to provide him with the help he needs, he seeks to establish a team of misfits to help him to the job. He gathers a team of a Buddhist Monk who is a drunkard, a surgeon addicted to morphine, a prostitute who is in love with him, a madam who is the owner of a local prostitute house, and lastly a dutch soldier who is a prisoner of war. The film focuses on the issue of nationalism and how the military is blinded by it because instead of helping the doctor save lives of people on the island, they are obedient to their leaders who command them to fight in an already lost war.

While the 1998 fil, Dr. Akagi, offers a look into the last days of the war in Japan, the 1988 film, Akira, offers a different outlook of power and the fate of the country of Japan. The film is an anime that is set in a futuristic dystopia called neo-Tokyo. According to an article by Tadashi the movie, “chose images of the apocalyptic as appropriate… a metaphor for the world they were forced to live in” (89). The film is directed by Katsushiro Otomo and indirectly tells the story of the effects the Second World War had on Japan as a nation as well as its future. The film starts off with a nuclear explosion that completely destroys Tokyo in 1988. Thirty-one years later, the audience is introduced to a futuristic dystopia known as neo-Tokyo that has been rebuild after the nuclear explosion. The film follows the activities of Shotaro Kaneda, who is the leader of a biker gang of students who act as vigilantes. His best friend and co-member of the biker gang, Tetsuo Shima, develops strange psychic powers that capture the attention of a secret government science project that is experimenting on people with these powers. Tetsuo becomes powerful and goes on a power rampage that destroys the city. His friend Kaneda is determined to stop him and help him go back to his old ways. The film focuses on the abuse of power and tackles the question if one person is truly allowed to hold such power. The film is considered a classic because it was produced in a time when the nuclear race was at its height. Also, it looks into the dangers of countries being allowed to develop such power for military purposes.

The two films are significant because they show the audience the effects of war as well as how the abuse of power can have catastrophic results. For starters, the two movies highlight the issue of nationalism and how it affects society. In the film, Dr. Akagi, the idea of being obedient and loyal to the nation is viewed to make the military less compassionate to the people of the island and their troubles. According to an article by Saburo, people were taught nationalism by being “made to believe that Japan was a superior nation whose mission was to lead the world” (443). Although the doctor believes that he can find a cure to help his patients fight the hepatitis epidemic, the authorities deny to help him because they believe the resources should be used in the war. The soldiers refuse to help the island because they believe that the workforce will help the country win a war. It is badly losing. The doctor views this blind obedience as a factor that is destroying Japanese society because people are becoming less compassionate. Meanwhile, in the film, Akira, nationalism, and corporatism take center stage in influencing the actions of the government. The government risks putting the whole country in jeopardy and destruction because they believe if they can understand how to weaponize the psychic abilities of the children in their secret facility, then they grow to become a powerful nation. This ideology leads to the destruction of Tokyo because Akira loses control of his power and destroys Tokyo. The two movies portray nationalism as a concept that is slowly hurting the country and society because it embraces ignorance, which in turn leads to the destruction of the country.

Apart from nationalism and corporatism, the two films focus on how war and conflict affect the social structure as well as social morality. In the film Akira, the students are constantly rioting because of the corruption taking place in the country. The conflict between the government and the resistance has led to the loss of lives. Corruption has also affected the social structure of the society in the film because students are unable to attain quality education, and they end up becoming gangsters and thieves. Kaneda and his friends become vigilantes to try to help the dystopian society and to make it a better place where people are able to live at peace. The film, Dr. Akagi, focuses on how the war has affected social morality and structure. One of the many challenges presented by conflict is the loss of life. In the film, people lose their lives because of war, whether it is the soldiers or the bystanders. In an article by Osamu narrates how bystanders can be affected by the war by stating that, “suddenly the air-raid siren went off, and a moment later the droning planes could be heard overhead,” (7). Similar to the article, innocent people are killed during the sudden confrontations with enemy forces. Also, the island has a challenge of social morality because most of the characters of the film are engaged in vices that have resulted from the war. For example, the surgeon who Dr. Akagi enlists to help him run his clinic of sorts is addicted to morphine and is unable to perform his duties. Also, prostitution is one of the economic activities on the island because it is a pleasure shop on the island. The soldiers casually enjoy visiting the brothel. There is also rampant corruption because the authorities seek to deny helping the doctor help the people who are sick with hepatitis because they view the resources are better spent on the military rather than on sick people. The two films show the negative results of conflict and how people, as well as society, are able to lose their morality because of conflict.

The question of power has been greatly viewed in these two films because of the contrasting ideology that has been presented by the two films. While in one film, the character uses his ability to help people, the other character uses his power for destruction. In Akira, Tetsuo becomes an overwhelmingly powerful psychic such that the combined power of the psychic children and the military is unable to stop him. In his search for Akira, Tetsuo destroys the city of Tokyo while killing countless people who are bystanders. Similar to the titular character, Tetsuo embodies the question of whether one person should be allowed to hold such overwhelming power without constraints. Meanwhile, Dr. Akagi uses his medical abilities to help people on his island who are suffering from hepatitis. Unlike Tetsuo, Dr. Akagi does not have supernatural abilities. However, his abilities embody the idea of one person having access to an ability that the rest of society does not know, which is his medical abilities. Moreover, Dr. Akagi is the character in the film who is able to find a cure for the disease that is killing people. The two characters differ because even though Dr. Akagi is not as powerful as Tetsuo, he uses his ability to heal people. The psychic powers that Tetsuo and Akira have could be interpreted to draw parallels to the nuclear weapons countries were developing in the mid-nineteenth century. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the demand for nuclear power was in demand. Thus, nations competed to have these weapons because they could give them an advantage over their opposing nation during war. An article by Lamarre shows the movie’s relevance by stating, “the repetitious escalation of violence in the imaging of nuclear destruction entails an acting out of our historically traumatic relation to weapons of mass destruction,” (132). Similar to the fate of the neo city of Tokyo in the film, the use of such power would lead to the destruction of many cities, and the loss of life would be high. Responsibility for the usage of power arises. For example, Tetsuo’s ability could have been to save the lives of people, but rather, he chooses to kill scores of people. Therefore, the two films explore the ability to use power responsibly to help society to improve rather than to destroy.

Lastly, the two films show how conflict and wars affect the interpersonal relationships between people in society through the lives of the characters in the two films. The directors of the film use the relationships formed by characters in the movies to portray how conflict and war interfere or affect these relationships. In Akira, most of the relationships are affected by the conflict between the characters and the government, their inner conflict, and also their interaction with other characters. Kaneda and Tetsuo are friends who are on the same biker gang where Kaneda is the leader. When Tetsuo loses control of his psychic powers, his relationship with Kaneda is affected because he becomes egomaniacal and believes that his power will help him get the acknowledgment he deserves. The destruction of Tokyo affects the lives of many people, and there is an ongoing conflict between the government and the resistance movement. The bombings of public places by the resistance movement have led to the death of many people, including parents. Furthermore, this has put a strain on the child-parent relationship since most of the children in the film will grow up as orphans. Tetsuo is also not able to pursue his relationship with his girlfriend Kaori because he is unable to control his abilities and ends up hurting her. The film’s conflict hinders the characters from exploring their relationships. Meanwhile, in the 1998 film Dr. Akagi, Aso is a prostitute who is in love with the doctor. However, the doctor does not reciprocate the feelings because he is focused on his work since he is understaffed and lacks the relevant resources to combat the disease that is affecting many people on his island. She even goes further to become his housekeeper and nurse, but he is still not romantically attracted to her. Dr. Akagi takes up the role of a celibate hero because the war denies him the chance to find resources to help cure the epidemic. The two films help the viewers understand that conflict affects the ability of people to form interpersonal relationships with others.

The two films are enjoyable and exciting to watch and help the audience understand the abuse of power, nationalism, conflict, and wars that affect both social structures and the formation of interpersonal relationships. The two films are classics in their own rights because they show the ideas of the directors’ view of Japan during the Second World War. For starters, in Shohei Imamura’s Dr. Akagi, the film focuses on the last and waning moments of Japan during the second world war and how the country was affected by the war. In the film Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo looks into the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki affected the lives of people and, thus, creates an anime film that focuses on a futuristic dystopia set thirty-one years after the nuclear bombings of the two islands event-like takes place in Tokyo in the film. The two motion pictures feature the issue of nationalism and how it negatively influences society. The two films also center around how war and struggle influence social structure as well as social morality. In addition to this, the two movies show how strife and wars influence the relational connections between individuals in society through the lives of the characters in the two movies. The two films look into the question of power and how it can be abused if not used responsibility without oversight in place. Overall, the films are exciting to watch because they show the retelling of one of the world’s most famous historical moments and how it affected Japan.

Work Cited

Lamarre, Thomas. “Born of Trauma: Akira and capitalist modes of destruction.” positions: east Asia cultures critique 16.1 (2008): 131-156.

Osamu, Dazai. “Selected Stories and Sketches.” Selected Stories and Sketches, pp. 1-10.

Saburo, Ienaga. “Reflections.” Unresolved Wars, pp. 441-447.

Tadashi, Uchino. “Images of Armageddon: Japan’s 1980s Theatre Culture.” TDR/The Drama Review 44.1 (2000): 85-96.