★ 臺灣首映 Taiwan Premiere
★ 1999 日本電影學院獎  最佳男主角、最佳女配角、年度新人 1999 Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Newcomer of the Year, Japan Academy Film Prize
★ 1999 電影旬報 年度十大影片第四名 1999 Kinema Junpo's Top 10 Japanese Films

二戰邁入尾聲，仍然持續堅持作戰的日本，爆發了流行性肝炎。終日奔走出診，卻只收取微薄報酬的赤城大夫，不僅專注於搜集大規模擴散的肝炎案例，亦收留一名曾從事性工作的女孩為助手，遊走於平民、軍官以及醫療人員間，照護那些因配給無法獲得妥善的病人，試圖治癒這窮困、尚不完善的公衛環境，以及被戰爭所綁架的社會。此時，廣島上升起的蘑菇雲，似乎也如那腫脹的肝臟……。

改編自坂口安吾的同名反戰原著，今村昌平歷時近半世紀醞釀赤城大夫形象，折射出其心中父親身為醫者的奉獻精神。影像是一把鋒利手術刀，在無數奔走、碰壁與冷嘲熱諷中，剖開戰時社會的人際網絡與慾望結構，揭示肝病流行背後的體制性病灶，而山下洋輔巧思靈動，以奔跑為題的爵士配樂，更提煉游移在悲喜劇之間的曖昧質感。「肝病」不僅是醫學名詞，亦儼然成為當時逆境社會的病徵與底層憤怒之化身。

Japan, 1945. In a provincial town, the diligent doctor Akagi runs from one patient to another; only he tends to always make the same diagnosis: hepatitis. His tendency to see livers enlarged by hepatitis is so strong that people call him “doctor liver.” Despite the disastrous historical-political events (Japan is losing the war), and the country’s crumbling social fabric, Akagi sees research on hepatitis as his reason for living, so much so that it makes him apparently blind to what is happening around him.