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Jun 22, 2009 Web Exclusive By Brandon Cunningham

Akira Kurosawa is probably the best known and most well loved director from Japan. He worked consistently from 1943’s Sanshiro Sugata to 1965’s Red Beard, making nearly two dozen films in that period; all in black and white and mostly shot in scope. At that point in his career, Kurosawa was ready for a change and decided to come to America and make his first film in color with an American cast. He wrote the script for Runaway Train and began pre-production. The American money men, however, didn’t see eye to eye with his budget predictions, and didn’t understand why the film needed to be in color, so the project was scrapped. (In 1985, a film based on the screenplay was made by Andrei Konchalovsky starring Jon Voight). This brought Kurosawa to another American co-production, also a chance to work with color film.  He was hired to direct the Japanese portions of Tora! Tora! Tora!, a big budget WWII epic from the point of view of American and Japanese soldiers. Kurosawa worked for two years building sets, writing, and shooting sequences before he was fired due to being behind schedule and a feeling from the American producers that he was difficult. 

     All of these circumstances led to Kurosawa’s 1970 film Dodes’ka-den.  Fearing he would never be allowed to direct again, Kurosawa took on a much smaller production that he knew had to be made quickly and on budget. The film was finished in less than a month and marked several firsts in Kurosawa’s career. Most notably, it was his first film shot in color. And there is no shortage of color in the movie, several set pieces are hand painted or decorated with paintings by Kurosawa himself. Another first for the director was his use of zoom lens; which he uses most noticeably as a means of creating the movement of a trolley. And finally, the narrative style itself was a bit of a first for Kurosawa. It doesn’t follow one particular hero through his journey which was very common for his films until that point. It seemed more influenced by other Japanese directors than by Western directors he admired, which may have come from the fact that three other prominent Japanese directors (Masaki Kobayashi, Keisuke Kinoshita, & Kon Ichikawa) helped him produce it.

      The story of Dodes’ka-den is about a group of people living in a small decaying village in an unnamed part of Japan. The film weaves in and out of several characters’ lives without telling one particular story but giving glimpses of many. Three particular stories stand out above the others: We are first brought into the village by a quirky fellow named Rokkuchan, who is called the “trolley freak” by the children who they hurl rocks at him. He takes no notice as he perseveres on his journey. Obvious connections can be made to the way Kurosawa was felling at the time. Katsuko the flower girl is constantly abused by her uncle, a man in a position of authority to her, suggesting the relationship Kurosawa felt he had with American producers.   The beggar and his son who dream of a better life and fantasize about a house they will one day build on a hill. They decide on the architecture and style of the gates while we see it all unfold in their fantasy sequences, possibly to symbolize the dream projects Kurosawa himself would never finish. There are tonal shifts as the film moves from story to story, but ultimately there is an overall feeling of optimism. While not Kurosawa’s greatest film, it marked an important shift in his career and showed glimpses of what he would later do in films like Kagemusha and Dreams.

     Criterion’s DVD release looks superb in its newly restored transfer.  Extras include a 36-minute episode about the film from the Japanese television series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, the theatrical trailer, and a booklet with an essay by Stephen Prince and an interview with script supervisor Teruyo Nogami. The whole package is rounded out nicely with Criterion’s always excellent art direction. (www.criterion.com)

Author rating: 7/10