Dodes 'Ka-Den
by Akira Kurosawa
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Actor: Kin Sugai, Shinsuke Minami, Toshiyuki Tonomura, Yűko Kusunoki, Yoshitaka ZushiDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Producer: Akira Kurosawa
Writer: Akira Kurosawa
Producer: Keisuke Kinoshita
Producer: Kon Ichikawa
Writer: Hideo Oguni
Writer: Shinobu Hashimoto
Writer: Shugoro Yamamoto
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 140 minutes
Release Date: 2000-06-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Homevision
Studio: Homevision
VHS Movie Reviews of Dodes 'Ka-Den
Movie Review: Kurosawa in Color is Pretty But Jumbled
Summary: 3 Stars
Long before Traffic, Akira Kurosawa made a movie with several interlocking stories. The stories were all about the denizens of a Tokyo slum. They fight, gossip, joke, fantasize and live out their daily lives in destitute poverty. Dodes'ka-Den is pretty to look at in parts but jumps fitfully about and the stories are not particular compelling & the entiremovie has a relentlessly downbeat & somewhat preachy tone.
I've seen it twice now and I was bored both times. I've seen all but two or three Kurosawa movies and there are a few Kurosawa movies I don't care for but this is the only one that outright bores me. Kurosawa highlighting the travails of les miserables is nothing new. He had already done so in Red Beard and The Lower Depths and both of those are far superior works. Here, Kurosawa seems to be playing it safe with retread themes and unimaginative camerawork. For all of the pretty colors, the maker of Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and Rashomon renders a surprisingly static palette.
The making of Dodes'ka-Den was a turning point in Kurosawa's life. It was an unqualified disaster. After over two decades in in the Japanesestudio system Kurosawa had broken with the studios and his stable of actors & entered into a fragile production partnership with three other directors. They desperately needed their first feature to be a hit. Dodes tanked critically and publically and Kurosawa tried to kill himself. Fortunately, he rallied and made six more movies, including the excellent Kagamusha & Dersu Uzala, the masterpiece Ran and the very watchable Dreams & Madadayo. Dodes'ka-Den is a lesser work by one of the greatest directors ever, which means it's a better work that most directors' best work.
Movie Review: Diamond in the Rough
Summary: 3 Stars
Dodes ka den is the sound that an imaginary trolly car makes as it is driven up hill in the Japanese slum in Akira Kurasawa'a film of the same name. This film, a failure at the time of release, is a diamond in the rough for its ever humanistic director. The film was the master's first color film and he paints with an extemely colorful palette.
The interconnected stories of the impoverished denizens of an urban slum in Tokyo may be pessimistic but they are fascinating all the same. Kurasawa tried a method of filmaking that would become popular some 25 years later with such films as Crash, Babel and Short Cuts. Misunderstood when it was released (the film took five years to get to the Unite States)and still seldom seen the film needs to be sought out by those who are interested in Kurasawa's work.
Available only on VHS this film would truly sparkle if given new life as a DVD release. The picture is letterboxed with good subtitles. Well worth seeing if you have the oppurtunity. Seek it out.
Movie Review: An uncommonly beautiful film....
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most visually beautiful films ever made. The fact that it is about slum people living on a Tokyo rubbish tip makes it an even more remarkable feat. This was Kurosawa's first color film, and the color is absolutely amazing. Kurosawa shot this film in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio (forgoing his usual 2.35:1 framing), and it really makes the film much more intimate and, from a technical standpoint, makes the colours more vibrant. This film came out during a rather bad time for Kurosawa. He hadn't completed a film since 1965's Red Beard (another underrated film), and had just been fired from the 20th Century Fox production Tora! Tora! Tora!, because of creative differences and Fox treating Kurosawa like an assembly line director. He was having a difficult time in Japan receiving financing, so he formed a company with 3 other top Japanese directors. Japanese films at the time were more concerned with monsters and soft porn than art or big themes, so Kurosawa's group wanted to make films with substance and art. Dodeskaden was the first film of this venture. Sadly, it was also the last. It was a commercial failure, which led to the group's disbandment. No other films were made from this venture. Shortly after this, Kurosawa attempted suicide. Luckily, he survived, and went on to make 6 more films, including several masterpieces (Ran, Dreams, Madadayo, Dersu Uzala). This film is really a departure for Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune was not in this film. Kurosawa and Mifune had huge disagreements on Red Beard, and they never made another film together. The film is more of an ensemble piece than an actual epic, heroic story, which is were the films Kurosawa was known for making. Despite its subject matter, it's actually a gorgeous film, with excellent performances, a beautiful music score by Toru Takemitsu (one of Japan's most famous composers), and amazing cinematography. It's one of Kurosawa's most underrated films.
Movie Review: Clackety-clack: a brilliant look at poverty in Japan (or anywhere, actually)
Summary: 5 Stars
Kurosawa's first color film and a magnificently poignant and deeply human tribute to a group of slum dwellers living in a modern Japanese city. It consists of a series of vignettes, all held together by their commonly shared poverty motif, and are about: a dreamer who imagines building a mansion and his son who dies from eating spoiled food he's begged from restaurants; a crippled man who defends his ungrateful wife; a young girl who slaves for her drunken uncle who gets her pregnant; a kind old man who gives away what little he has to a thief; two drunken men who exchange wives and then switch back again; a blind man who cannot forgive his adulterous wife; and a retarded boy who imagines he operates a trolley car and goes up and down the streets hollering "Dodes 'ka-den" (which means "clackey-clack"). The scenes are at once heartbreaking and comic, and not for a moment does Kurosawa stoop to sentimentality or preachiness. The cinematography is stunning. A major movie-watching experience.
Movie Review: Letterboxed
Summary: 4 Stars
It doesn't say it in the Amazon description or the video box, but the film is letterboxed to about 1.66:1 (which appears to be the original aspect ratio).
Since Kurosawa was a master of using the whole frame, this is very good news. I was prepared to live with a pan-and-scan edition; finding that it was letterboxed was a very nice surprise.
Also, according to the IMDB trivia page, the "244-minute original running time" is a myth.
Summary of Dodes 'Ka-Den
Akira Kurosawa's first color film is a spellbinding tribute to humankind's ability to overcome adversity by holding on to dreams. Brilliant colors flood the screen as Kurosawa illuminates the grim world of Tokyo slum dwellers who, to escape the pain of poverty, have taken refuge in illusion.Made in 1970, this film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1972. This is Kurosawa's first color film, and there seems to be an almost psychedelic overlay to his production palette. The story revolves around a collection of characters held together only by the frayed thread of poverty. Rokkuchan (Yoshitaka Zushi), a teenager with the mind of a boy, is obsessed with trolley cars. He draws them from every angle in vivid colors. His despondent mother (Kin Sugai) hangs them lovingly on the walls and windows of their simple home.
Every morning Rokkuchan goes out to his imaginary trolley car and makes his way through the surrounding slums. His neighbors include a humble man with a terrible limp and an unforgiving wife, two couples who color-coordinate their husband-swapping, and a sad derelict man with an adoring but doomed little boy. During the day, father and son pass the time building a dream house in their minds. At night they sleep in an abandoned car.
While visually compelling, the film lacks connection between the characters, which leaves the viewer feeling disjointed and somehow lessens the emotional impact of these tragic stories. But as a slice-of-life look at how people maintain simple dignities in the face of great hardship, it is definitely a film worth seeing. --Luanne Brown
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