Warm Current

Ryôtarô Mizushima is dying. He asks Shin Saburi, the son of an old friend, to take over as head of his hospital and to clear up the mess in his estate; his son, Tatsuo Saitô, has no interest in business or medicine, just in golf, drinking and chasing girls. Saburi agrees, and runs into immediate conflict with the unbelieving Saitô, as well as the hospital gossip and politics. Mizushima's daughter, Mieko Takamine, agrees to his every proposal, but she is engaged to Shin Tokudaiji, a doctor at the hospital.

In short, it's a soap opera set at a hospital. The original movie ran 177 minutes. The copy that was rereleased in 1947 is 124 minutes, and that is the version I looked at. There are some obvious cuts, particularly towards the end, but the story remains intact. Saburi gives a performance that is focused and narrow-minded in its intensity. Miss Takamine is charming, and the other cast members are good under the direction of Kôzaburô Yoshimura. If hospital-based soaps are your cup of tea, this Japanese variation should be interesting.

Recognizing that he doesn't have long to live, an elderly gentleman by the name of "Yasuhide Shima" (Hideo Fujino) reaches out to a young businessman named "Yuzo Hibiki" (Shin Saburi) for assistance in managing a private hospital he owns which has been suffering from financial mismanagement for a number of years. Along with that, he also asks Hibiki to assume control of his personal finances due to the fact that his adult son "Yasuhiko Shima" (Tatsuo Saitô) has recklessly squandered much of his family's fortune as well. Needless to say, this announcement causes a great deal of concern from a number of people--especially Yasuhiko and those in upper management. Not only that, but having never worked in a hospital environment before, his ability to retain the best employees--while dismissing those who are less productive--is seriously affected. So, to remedy the situation, he secretly asks a nurse by the name of "Gin Ishiwatari" (Mitsuko Mito) to help him in that regard. Flattered by his trust in her, Gin quickly falls in love with Hibiki. For his part, Hibiki seems more interested in his job to notice--and that creates a number of problems later on. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an entertaining film which was made even more remarkable due to the time period within Japan in which it was made. Admittedly, the film was quite dated, and the rather basic English subtitles also left much to be desired. Even so, I enjoyed this movie for the most part, and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.