The Quiet Duel

The Quiet Duel (静かなる決闘, Shizukanaru Kettō) is a 1949 Japanese medical drama film directed by Akira Kurosawa.^[2][3]

The Quiet Duel
Directed by	Akira Kurosawa[1]
Screenplay by	Senkichi Taniguchi Akira Kurosawa
Based on	The Abortion Doctor by Kazuo Kikuta
Produced by	Sōjirō Motoki Hisao Ichikawa
Starring	Toshiro Mifune Takashi Shimura
Cinematography	Soichi Aisaka
Music by	Akira Ifukube
Production company	Film Art Association
Distributed by	Daiei Film
Release date	March 13, 1949 (1949-03-13) (Japan)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Plot

The film centers on Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki, a young, idealistic doctor who, during his service as an army physician during World War II, contracted syphilis from the blood of a patient when he accidentally cut himself during an operation.

Contaminated with this infectious, typically shameful, and then-virtually incurable disease, Fujisaki returns home from the war to the clinic presided over by his obstetrician father, Dr. Konosuke Fujisaki. He comes into contact with the patient who contaminated him, in the process seeing the consequences of ignoring the disease. Treating himself in secret with Salvarsan and tormented by his sense of injustice for not being able to help the man, he rejects Misao, his fiancé of six years, without explanation, as he does not wish her to have to wait for a number of years until he is cured. Heartbroken, Misao becomes engaged to another man. She makes one last plea to Fujisaki, but he stands firm in rejecting her.^[4]

Cast

• Toshiro Mifune as Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki
• Miki Sanjo [ja] as Misao Matsumoto
• Takashi Shimura as Dr. Konosuke Fujisaki
• Kenjiro Uemura [ja] as Susumu Nakada
• Isamu Yamaguchi [ja] as Patrolman Nosaka
• Noriko Sengoku as apprentice nurse Rui Minegishi
• Chieko Nakakita as Takiko Nakada
• Kenichi Miyajima [ja] as the dealer
• Masateru Sasaki as the old soldier
• Seiji Izumi as the policeman
• Tadashi Date as the father of the boy with appendicitis
• Shigeyuki Miyajima as the officer

Production

Production was interrupted due to a lengthy strike at the Toho movie studio, and Kurosawa would ultimately finish the movie at rival studio Daiei. At that time Daiei also owned a baseball team, the Daiei Stars, whose players visited the movie set during filming.^[5]

Reception

According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film received three critic reviews rated 'Fresh', but did not receive enough reviews to earn a consensus.^[6]

Home video

The Quiet Duel was released on DVD in the U.S. by BCI Eclipse, as the first title in their "Director's Series". It was never released in U.K. cinemas, but was released on DVD in the U.K. in 2006 under the title "The Silent Duel".