Dodes'ka-den (1970)
"Dodesukaden" (original title)

Various tales in the lives of Tokyo slum dwellers, including a mentally deficient young man obsessed with driving his own commuter trolley.

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Akira Kurosawa (screenplay), Hideo Oguni (screenplay),

Stars:

Yoshitaka Zushi, Kin Sugai, Toshiyuki Tonomura

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Yoshitaka Zushi	...	Roku-chan
Kin Sugai	...	Okuni
Toshiyuki Tonomura	...	Taro Sawagami
Shinsuke Minami	...	Ryotaro Sawagami
Yûko Kusunoki	...	Misao Sawagami
Junzaburô Ban	...	Yukichi Shima
Kiyoko Tange	...	Mrs. Shima
Michio Hino	...	Mr. Ikawa
Keiji Furuyama	...	Mr. Matsui
Tappei Shimokawa	...	Mr. Nomoto
Kunie Tanaka	...	Hatsutaro Kawaguchi
Jitsuko Yoshimura	...	Yoshie Kawaguchi
Hisashi Igawa	...	Masuo Masuda
Hideko Okiyama	...	Tatsu Masuda
Tatsuo Matsumura	...	Kyota Watanaka

Storyline

Episodes from the lives of a group of Tokyo slum-dwellers: Rokkuchan, a retarded boy who brings meaning and routine to his life by driving an imaginary streetcar; children who support their parents by scrounging or by tedious and ill-paying endeavours; schemers who plot or dream of escaping the shackles of poverty.

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Plot Keywords:

slum | poverty | sleeping | starvation | starving child | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

9 June 1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dodes'ka-den

Filming Locations:

Horie-cho, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company, Yonki-no-Kai Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

140 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie was made as the first feature of the Committee of the Four Knights, a group founded by four of Japan's greatest directors: Akira Kurosawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Masaki Kobayashi and Kon Ichikawa. According to a interview with Ichikawa, they wanted their first picture to be a hit. When this film told a story deemed too depressing and was subsequently a failure with audiences, the group disbanded and never made another film. The movie's failure also contributed to Kurosawa's suicide attempt one year later.

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Connections

Referenced in American Beauty (1999)

User Reviews

Magical

Its definitely not for everyone; a great artist, when he is experimenting, often alienates a large percentage of the public. For my money, its one of the more amazing films of all time, and contains numerous scenes which I can recall vividly; the now-over-the-edge of sanity father exclaiming "the house is finished!"; the stuttering husband defending his rude wife to his guests; the monk offering all of his possessions to a thief; and most of all the incredible closing scene, as the camera pans across walls covered with amazing color drawings of trolley-cars. The compassion Kurosawa shows for humanity is deep and profound; there is nothing else in the annals of film quite like the Buddhist-influenced post-WW2 works of the Japanese directors. There are many many millions of people on the planet today who do not live as well as this little community in the middle of their garbage-dump.