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Dodes'ka-den

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By turns tragic and transcendent, Akira Kurosawa’s Dodes’ka-den follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on. Kurosawa’s unforgettable film was made at a tumultuous moment in his life. And all of his hopes, fears, and artistic passion are on fervent display in this, his gloriously shot first color film.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create, a 36-minute documentary created as part of the Toho Masterworks series, about the making of Dodes’ka-den, including interviews with director Akira Kurosawa, script supervisor Teruyo Nogami, actor Yoshitaka Zushi (who played Rokkuchan), and other members of the cast and crew
• Theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film historian Stephen Prince and a new interview with Nogami

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I'm very interested to see what Criterion is putting on here as extras, as they have made us wait for so many years since announcing it.

Well there's quite a bit of backstory-- after the excesses of Redbeard which marked the end of his relationship w Mifune, he started his own production co with comrades Kobayashi Kinoshita and Ichikawa.. and this film skeevotzed the Japanese public and put AK into temporary oblivion (not to mention his suicide attempt). So there's a lot of context available.

Is there a "It is wonderful to create" ep for this film from Toho?

I'm more interested to see whether the mythical 244 minute cut of the film is the one which will be included (vs. the 140 minute cut released in the US; read more here, at the bottom of the page), as I would think the bonus features will be pretty similar to CC's other Kurosawa releases (Richie or Prince commentary, relevant episode of It's Wonderful to Create [one surely exists], perhaps an additional video featurette a la Drunken Angel on the film's torturous history in Kurosawa's oeuvre).

I don't think this film works, even on its own terms, but it's a really interesting experiment and way overdue for a proper release. It could greatly benefit from detailed contextual extras, so I hope Criterion goes the extra mile for this.

Cronenfly wrote:I'm more interested to see whether the mythical 244 minute cut of the film is the one which will be included

"Mythical" is an apt word here, since I see no reason to think a 244-minute cut ever existed. Stuart Galbraith wrote in his book that the supposed 244 minute runtime stems entirely from a misprint in Richie's Films of Akira Kurosawa; I've never seen it mentioned in any other "reputable" source.

I haven't really given this a fair viewing, as I've only watched it once with poor, incomplete subtitles, but someone correct me if I'm wrong: Dodes'ka-den is Kurosawa's Forrest Gump.

I don't think it's very Forest Gump, no. There is a retarded character who makes a "moral center" of the film, but the treatment certainly isn't as jokey or gimmicky as Forest Gump. The opening scene with the mother's pained face makes clear that this boy is as much a burden is he is a joy (if not more so). Further, the film's tone is pretty dark, more closely resembling Ran and Kagemusha than the earlier works. That suicide attempt didn't come only out of the film's failure.

In some ways, it strikes me as Kurosawa's response to Immamura and the New Wave--his own way of looking at the folk on the outside of society, but still mired in Kurosawa's formalist approach. The result just doesn't work that well. They are too many characters stretched thin, and they lack the charismatic oddity of Immamura. Instead they're largely boring, with a few moments of piercing insight.

In short I agree with lots of others. The film has a lot going for it, and certain sequences are wonderful (the introduction of the imaginary train sticks out in my mind), but it doesn't coalesce into a satisfying whole. Still, definitely worth a look, and I look forward to seeing the wonderful colors in a new transfer.

With this and The Last Metro, March seems to be flawed films by major directors month.

Kurosawa fails to balance the comic and the tragic elements of the film. The tragic elements are top notch, as you would expect from him; but for the comedy he relies too much on a forced comic eccentricity in his characters (the wife swappers, for example, who never become more than their quirky set-up). It really is hard to know what to make of the whole thing, which accounts for how unsatisfying most find it. There's so many good bits, however, that I'd still recommend watching it. It's a failure by Kurosawa's standards, but still a watchable movie by any other. I suspect, tho', that many on the forum will loath it.

I enjoy DODES'KA-DEN very much. I think it has the best opening sequences of any Kurosawa film, and ranks among the most visually interesting. Underrated, imho.

It's probably been a decade since I've seen the film, but it was my favorite Kurosawa at the time. I'm eager to re-watch it to see how my tastes have changed. It's really Kurosawa's first departure I Live in Fear from the genre filmmaking he became so good at. I recall reading that Kurosawa felt that after Red Beard he no longer had anything to contribute along the familiar lines, and wanted to strike out a new path, and when that failed in a one-two punch of Tora Tora Tora and Dodes'kaden, he felt like he no longer had anything to contribute to cinema at all—cinema being his whole life, he then tried to end it.

Regardless of whether it's his best or worst film (or somewhere in between), at least one thing we can probably agree on?: this film is one of the most (or the most) essential Kurosawa in terms of understanding him as a filmmaker. Because of its flaws, because of what a critical part of his life it played, and because he expresses in it so many ideas that he was never able to express in his other films. I've been eager to see this from Criterion since they first announced it… was it really 7 years ago?

Now that the specs are up, I must say: I'm disappointed. NO audiocommentary, and apparently less extras than the French release, despite the booklet. Hmmm...would depend on how large that booklet is, actually, but I don't see myself double-dipping very soon on this, even though I'd prefer English subs rather than French, of course.

As to the film itself: I still haven't really decided what to make of it. I fully understand Mr.Sausage's point-of-view, but the comic relief moments never really appeared to me as such. These moments for me only added to the certain 'surrealistic' (or at least anti-realistic) feeling of the film, and for me the depiction of these people shares as much with the grim state of being in "The Lower depths" or the end of "High and Low" as it seems to look forward to the fantasy worlds of "Dreams". One might consider such a combination as a fatal flaw, and I might even agree with this, but the film as much as almost everything in Kurosawa exudes a very deep humanity, a real concern of the filmmaker for these people. And, regardless of how you finally judge the film, it's a complete visual treat. Not to be missed.

Tommaso wrote:I fully understand Mr.Sausage's point-of-view, but the comic relief moments never really appeared to me as such. These moments for me only added to the certain 'surrealistic' (or at least anti-realistic) feeling of the film, and for me the depiction of these people shares as much with the grim state of being in "The Lower depths" or the end of "High and Low" as it seems to look forward to the fantasy worlds of "Dreams". One might consider such a combination as a fatal flaw, and I might even agree with this, but the film as much as almost everything in Kurosawa exudes a very deep humanity, a real concern of the filmmaker for these people. And, regardless of how you finally judge the film, it's a complete visual treat. Not to be missed.

Oh, I don't mean to say the comic moments are "relief," and that they take away from the tragedy. I think Kurosawa was trying to make a tragi-comic film, and both elements were meant to have equal weight. But I don't think the comic elements are handeled as well as the tragic ones, which unbalances the movie and makes it hard, for me anyway, to really like it.

Mr_sausage wrote:Oh, I don't mean to say the comic moments are "relief," and that they take away from the tragedy. I think Kurosawa was trying to make a tragi-comic film, and both elements were meant to have equal weight.

Ah, I got you wrong there, obviously. Interesting, I never thought about "Dodeska'den" as a tragi-comic film (in the sense of some Kaurismäki, for instance), but rather as a grim, but very poetic film. Perhaps I'd rather call these 'comic' moments 'absurd'; they're depicting the somewhat strange habits and preoccupations of these people (your wife-swapping example is a perfect one) and you might smile at them, but they only heighten the desolation and perhaps the feeling of compassion in the film. I would never find similar 'comical' moments in "The Lower depths" funny, either. But perhaps that's just due to personal perception.

I checked the Criterion website, but didn't see any info...has a blu-ray version been announced also, or just DVD?
This is one of the handful of Kurosawa's 30-odd films I have yet to see, so seeing it in high-def would be a great first way to view it.

To reiterate what peerpee wrote in this thread:

A number of Japanese companies are currently preventing licencees in the West from releasing titles on Blu-ray until they've been released on Blu-ray in Japan and six months have passed. A further problem is that the Japanese have not scheduled Blu-ray releases for the films in question.

I presume this is why no Japanese titles appeared on Criterion's initial Blu-ray announcement list.

peerpee doesn't single out any Japanese companies specifically, but it's a safe bet that Toho is among them -- Kurosawa is a no-brainer for Blu and Seven Samurai should've been among the first wave of Criterion BDs if they'd been able to release it. And since Dodes'ka-den isn't out in Japan (the four-disc Kadokawa set are the only Kurosawa BDs on the horizon AFAIK), Criterion can't release it themselves.

Can somebody tell me what "dodes'ka-den" means? imdb has the english title as "Clickety-Clack"...is that really the literal translation?

It's not really a word so much as an onomatopoeia for the sound a train makes rolling down the tracks.

An onomotopaeic phrase, eh? Those Japanese traintracks sure make some interesting sounds... Thanks for clearing that up.

LQ wrote:An onomotopaeic phrase, eh? Those Japanese traintracks sure make some interesting sounds... Thanks for clearing that up.

Never saw that famous clip of the kid playing like he's a train, chuggling along joyfully saying "do DES ka DENNNNN!!!" ? Not sure if it's the trailer or what..

Can't say that I have! I'll try to uncover it.

HerrSchreck wrote:

LQ wrote:An onomotopaeic phrase, eh? Those Japanese traintracks sure make some interesting sounds... Thanks for clearing that up.

Never saw that famous clip of the kid playing like he's a train, chuggling along joyfully saying "do DES ka DENNNNN!!!" ? Not sure if it's the trailer or what..

Here you go. Music is by the great Toru Takemitsu.

I particularly love that scene. As a little kid in the late 60's -early 70's I used to stand in the front car of the NYC subways looking thru the window of the front door, holding onto the handle pretending it was the motorman's gear, and make like I was driving the train (which you can't do in today's trains because of the huge motormans booth blocking the view of the tracks coming at you). If some other kid got there before me my mother might hoist me up on her shoulders out of sympathy.

Or I might petulantly try and squeeze my way in next to the kid and force him to make room for me: two kids making funny gear and steam sounds quietly under their breath. It was common to see a queue of little kids occupying less and less prime make-believe-motorman spots.

It can't be overemphasized to this generation how badass an electric train set was back inna day before digital.

HerrSchreck wrote:It can't be overemphasized to this generation how badass an electric train set was back inna day before digital.

Ominous looking medicine bottle with eye dropper that you put into the smoke stack so it puffs smoke? Oh yeah, those were the days...

lacritfan wrote:Here you go. Music is by the great Toru Takemitsu.

Thanks for that! I sure wasn't going to be able to find it myself...
What a charming scene