Red Angel

During the Sino-Japanese war, nurse Nishi is placed in a mobile surgical unit and grows fully dedicated to her duty. Prepared to endure anything, she even forgives the dehumanized soldiers who rape her, offers her body to an amputee and falls in love with her much-older boss, a morphine addict. Her seemingly extreme selfless behaviour, however, is not that of a martyr but one of a desperate creature in its last effort to preserve the traces of humanity that war threatens to steal away forever. Masumura leaves any hint of idealism and patriotism aside for a shocking but apt sketch of the human psyche, under the shadow of death. Using sex as a symbol of a despondent will to live, he not only moulded one of his best films but also one of the most devastating anti-war works of art ever made.

Original Title: Akai Tenshi

Director: Yasuzo Masumura

Screenwriter: Ryôzô Kasahara

DoP: Setsuo Kobayashi

Music: Sei Ikeno

Editor: Tatsuji Nakashizu

Principal Cast: Ayako Wakao, Shinsuke Ashida, Yûsuke Kawazu, Ranko Akagi

Country: Japan

Year: 1966

Running Time: 95’

Language: Japanese