Warm Current is a remake of a pre-war classic, a love story centered around the intrigues of a large urban hospital. Masumura and scriptwriter Shirasaka, however, re-wrote the prescription for melodrama to include a healthy dose of skepticism; if Douglas Sirk made comedies, they might be something like this. As Tadao Sato writes in Currents in Japanese Cinema, "By increasing the tempo to the violent pitch of an action film, Masumura succeeded in surprising the audiences and in making them laugh. The characters were neither foolish nor absurd, but as they all behaved so frankly and acted so openly, the comic effect was further heightened." The ironic stance seemed to be as welcomed by the characters as it was by the audience. Sachiko Hidari (whom we have seen in far more sober roles in the films of her husband, Susumu Hani) gives an over-the-top performance as a young nurse, Gin, a war orphan whose childhood trauma now manifests itself in pathological giggles. Gin becomes a ruthless spy in the service of the new hospital director and handsome love interest (Jun Negami), here portrayed as a smug reformer. Lines such as "I like you in white," spoken to a nurse, are an early tip-off that this is a send-up of the original romance; such non-sequiturs abound. The film's subplot has Hitomi Nozoe as a pretty young bourgeoise with an identity crisis (her Western fashions, including a flowered pill-box hat, alone are worth the price of admission). Like Sirk's, Masumura's satire is in the service of his anguish; unexplained blood smudges on the white hospital uniforms hint at the kind of currents he perceives in contemporary mores.