Even though based on Maxim Gorky's play but set in Japan at the end of the Tokugawa period (it's in fact the first Kurosawa jidai-geki not dealing with samurai), Kurosawa's version of The Lower Depths left me quite indifferent. This might be due to, even though with a fantastic use of compositions in a limited visual space, its still very much theatrical nature. Maybe the whole film was in fact a dark comedy on the human nature which I could not understand. I could still appreciate its extremely dark but comical ending: As the whole group is singing and enjoying themselves news that the actor has hung himself arrive. The gambler quite annoyed replies: `The idiot... just as the fun was beginning' and the film ends. Or the irony of Mifune's yakuza character love for Kagawa Kyoko and her final betrayal sending him to prison. The musical soundtrack is astounding and very imaginative. It is entirely made of the human voices of the characters and one small drum. It is also quite enjoyable seeing the characters performing these sort of musical numbers. As said before Kurosawa shows again how great a technician he was using the constrictions of the studio to create amazing compositions to forward the story. The beginning of the film starts with a medium shot of the gambler and the actor with the sound of a pot being banged by somebody else. A 180 degree cut shows the tinker working on his pots and for every other cut another character, who until then were sort of lurking outside the frame, is thus introduced into the action.
Review of The Lower Depths
