This black comedy by Japanese filmmaker Shohei Imamura is a snapshot of pre-Hiroshima Japan, an antiheroic drama about a village doctor at the end of WWII, who unites a group of misfits to help him build a microscope large enough to discover the cause of hepatitis.

The hero is Dr. Akagi, a feisty physician who's determined to halt the hepatitis epidemic plaguing his country as World War II winds toward its explosive close; the motley crew helping him includes a drug-dependent doctor, a former hooker, and a Dutch soldier fresh from torture sessions at the hands of his captors. But his fanatic campaign brings him into disfavor with the Japanese army, and as the war seems more and more hopeless for the Japanese, Dr. Akagi finds himself increasingly a scapegoat.

One is reminded of Akira Kurosawa's last film, "Madadayo," also a celebration of a headstrong sensei and one just as filled with jocular sentiment. Both look back upon a world of warm eccentricity and droll consequences. They don't make films like this anymore.

Awards of the Japanese Academy 1999: Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress

Director: Shohei Imamura

Writers: Shohei Imamura, Ango Sakaguchi (novel)

Stars: Akira Emoto, Kumiko Aso, Juro Kara

1998 - JAPANESE with OPTIONAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES - COLOR - 16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN - 129 MINUTES