Dodesukaden (1970)

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Akira Kurosawa (screenplay) &
Hideo Oguni (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 June 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Episodes from the lives of a group of Tokyo slum-dwellers: Rokkuchan, a retarded boy who brings meaning...

Plot Keywords:

Poverty | Artificial Flower | Garbage Dump | Alcohol | Ghetto

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins

Cast

Yoshitaka Zushi	...	Rokkuchan
Kin Sugai	...	Okuni, Rokkuchan's Mother
Toshiyuki Tonomura	...	Taro Sawagami
Shinsuke Minami	...	Ryotaro Sawagami
Yûko Kusunoki	...	Misao Sawagami
Junzaburo 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

Also Known As:

Clickety-Clack (Japan) (literal English title)
Dodes'ka-den (USA)

Runtime:

140 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Sweden:15 | UK:A

Filming Locations:

Horie-cho, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

Shooting began on April, 23rd, 1970, and was shot in about a month, which is an incredibly short period of time for a Kurosawa picture, given the facts that a) Kurosawa is a perfectionist and b) his prior film, Akahige (1965), took 2 years to go through all the phases involved in finishing a motion picture.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Music for the Movies: Tôru Takemitsu (1994)

Kurosawa's untypical masterpiece

This, and "Hidden fortress" are the Kurosawa's that are most dear to me. I don't hand out 10's like candy, but this certainly deserved it, if anything. Even though it's quite long (like all Kurosawa's pretty much are) it concurred the problem which bugs me with most of his films; the storyline is often too loose and slowly evolving, containing scenes that are unnecessary or just lenghtened too much without any real purpose to the storyline or the character description.

Dodesukaden delivered to me the same experience that for example "Hidden fortress" did; when the ending credits started rolling on the screen I found myself wondering if there was something wrong with my DVD copy, 'cause there ain't no way that the movie just lasted 140 minutes, when it felt more like 90 minutes.

This is a very unusual Kurosawa film in a way, it has no storyline, but many little independent stories which are based more to the character description than storyline, unlike any other Kurosawa-film I have seen so far. It also leans much on the dialogue, which he uses brilliantly (especially in the story between the father and the son planning their "new house".)

Still the thing that makes this one a masterpiece is how the subject being so tragic as it is, is managed to be described so humanely and sympathetically, without pointing fingers at anybody at any point. From the beginning to the end it delivers the whole emotional scale from laughter to tears in perfect balance.