Red Angel (赤い天使)

Art Festival 3 Production 1966

Akai Tenshi

Original Story by Yoriyoshi Arima

Photography by Setsuo Kobayashi

Music by Sei Ikeno

Starring

Ayako Wakao

Shinsuke Ashida Yusuke Kawazu

Directed by Yasuro Masumura

My name is Sakura Nishi,

I left Japan for China in May, 1939

I was assigned to the Tienstin Army Hospital

Nurse Taniguchi and you four, surgery.

Nurse Nishi and you three, general medicine.

Nishi.

Half of your patients are serious. The rest are not.

They're mainly TB and mentally ill patients.

Some aren't sick at all. Be careful.

Many can demonstrate a fever by agitating the thermometer.

Mental patients who've recovered pretend they're sick.

They prefer being here to manning the front lines.

Seeing through their lies is your job.

You'll be with them every day.

Understand?

Outwardly it's just like a military hospital in Japan.

But in fact it's a field hospital.

You're new here?

Where was your last post?

After graduating I spent three years a Tokyo Army Hospital.

Born in Tokyo? Me too.

From the Kiba area.

So, your family is in the lumber trade?

Grandfather was, I don't remember.

Why not?

Father died before I was born.

Mother also, when I was two.

An aunt raised me.

How old are you?

I'm 24.

I'm Pvt. Sakamoto, also from Tokyo. Be good to me.

Tokyo, eh? Damn it!

I wish I was back there.

Nishi, time to make your rounds.

Stop it! I'll scream!

Go ahead.

Let me go! Let me go!

No use fighting back.

Everyone's bored. They'll enjoy the show.

I reported everything the next night.

I see. Pvt. Sakamoto again?

You're his third victim.

He isn't fully recovered, but this can't go on!

Hello, Nurse.

I'm being sent back to the front line.

A death sentence.

Congratulate me.

Thanks for everything.

Good luck.

I really enjoyed it. Next time it's my turn.

Stuck here all day. A man needs a woman.

My next posting, two months later, was even worse.

Hell couldn't be much worse.

It was a front line hospital.

FIELD HOSPITAL

Bullet wound.

He's dead.

Surgery.

Bury this one.

Amputation.

Dead.

Put my foot back on!

Forget it, son.

Amputation.

All right, son. We'll stop the pain.

No saving him.

Surgery.

Help me! Please!

Control yourself!

Separate the dead.

Amputation. At the thigh.

Anesthetic?

Just local.

He's a kicker, hold him down.

Idiot! Get back here!

Mother!

All right, he's ready. I'll sew him up.

Get me a bandage.

200 operations over three days and three nights.

Lt. Okabe, the surgeon,

the medics and nurse, all went without sleep.

Arm next. Hold him down.

More and more men were brought in.

Many died before surgery.

Some died during surgery.

Others died after the operation.

They all went to the morgue.

Get their tags or we won't know who is who.

There was a mountain of tags.

It was the end of the third day.

His pulse is strong.

He's lost too much blood.

He's a goner.

Nurse Nishi.

It's me, Sakamoto...

Save me, please!

I'm sorry about what happened.

I don't want to die! I want to live!

I'm begging you!

Don't leave me!

Nurse Nishi! Please don't let me die!

Don't kill me...

Doctor.

He needs a transfusion.

Anesthetic.

Only colonels and above get blood transfusions.

I know this man. Please, Doctor.

How do you know him?

He was my patient in Tienstin for a while.

He's not kin, or even a friend?

No, sir.

We're swamped. These others have a better chance.

If you come to my quarters tonight, I'll do it for you.

Thank you, sir.

Just this once!

I didn't want him to die.

I didn't want him to think that was my revenge.

That I'd deliberately kill him.

The transfusion didn't work.

By the end of the shift he was dead.

What's up?

No pulse. His pupils are dilated.

He's been gut shot, it kills them every time.

What a waste of precious blood.

We'll take him out. Throw him in the pile.

One more dead!

Who is it?

Nurse Nishi.

Excuse me.

So, you really came?

Were you joking?

No, I meant it.

Pour me some wine.

The spoils of war.

The man we gave the transfusion to died.

That's no surprise. It would've been a miracle.

I'm sorry I caused you trouble.

Don't play favorites with the patients.

Soldiers aren't human beings!

They're just weapons.

Why did you operate if you knew he'd die?

Before I was drafted,

I was a specialist surgeon.

But here I'm no doctor.

I have to decide who will live.

Whether I can save them or not.

Sometimes I long to be a doctor again.

I knew he'd die but I did my best anyway.

The last vestiges of my professional pride

made me go through the motions.

Have a drink. You'll sleep better.

Yes, sir, I will.

How can I save truckloads of them?

Ruptured blood vessels, smashed bones...

Loss of blood or gangrene gets most of them.

We've no blood and very little medicine.

So I cut off their arms and their legs...

Even those who don't need it...

They say that I'm an expert at it.

I've cut off hundred of limbs.

I've crippled hundreds of men.

God knows how many.

But you had to save their lives.

You think they believe that?

They'd be better off dead.

What I'm doing is wicked.

I either let them die, or I cripple them. That's all.

Am I a doctor?

It's a wonder I don't go mad.

The war's to blame. Not you.

the war, eh?

As we attack, our lines get longer.

The enemy turns around and attacks our rear,

where our defense are weak.

China's too big.

It's a stupid war.

But that's the Army's problem, not mine.

Get undressed.

I can't get drunk in front of a nurse.

That's an order!

Yes, sir.

There's no tomorrow on the battlefield.

We live from day to day.

What happens today, whatever we do, fades tomorrow.

You need not worry.

Now come here!

What's your first name, Nishi?

Sakura.

Sakura? Cherry blossom?

Just think, if you live long enough,

you will become a 60 or 70 year-old Sakura.