Dodes'ka-Den

Starring:Yoshitaka Zushi, Kin Sugai, Toshiyuki Tonomura, Shinsuke Minami, YÃ»ko Kusunoki, Junzaburo Ban, Kiyoko Tange, Michio Hino, Keiji Furuyama, Tappei Shimokawa, Kunie Tanaka, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Hisashi Igawa, Hideko Okiyama, Tatsuo Matsumura, Tomoko Yamazaki, Masahiko Kametani, Hiroshi Akutagawa, Noboru Mitani, Hiroyuki Kawase
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Studio: Japanese Import
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
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.

Amazon.com

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.

Customer Reviews:

Diamond in the Rough.......2007-06-30

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.

An uncommonly beautiful film...........2006-12-22

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.

Clackety-clack: a brilliant look at poverty in Japan (or anywhere, actually).......2006-01-13

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.

Letterboxed.......2005-11-15

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.

Dodes'ka-Den.......2005-02-23

I remember seeing this movie on TV a while back and always wanting to watch it again, but found it too hard to find. I don't like how underrated this movie is. Sure its not as good as Kurosawa's masterpieces like Seven Samurai, Rashomon, and Ran (what movies are?) but it still deserves attention, as it is a great film nonetheless. Like a Yasujiro Ozu film (Floating Weeds, A Tokyo Story) this movie has a pretty simple story and characters, but deep emotions. I finally got my hands on the import DVD and its better than I even remember it. When I heard that this movie has been shaved off 100 minutes and the complete, uncut edition can't be found anywhere, I was kinda depressed. I mean, this is already a great film, but with those extra 100 minutes, (if they were really good!), could have rivaled Seven Samurai, Rashomon, and Ran as Kurosawa's masterpiece. But I guess we'll never know unless some DVD company (cough, cough... Criterion Collection) can find the original negative and give us the complete edition on DVD. How sad... a great movie like this being a box office failure, it deserves so much better than this. No wonder Kurosawa attempted suicide! Oh, well, this movie is fine as it is and still great in its cut version. I just really hope I can see the complete version someday! If you are a Kurosawa fan, you should still buy this movie! (don't be turned off at the fact that this was a commercial, financial, and box office failure!)

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