Dodes'ka-Den

I've always loved this movie, one of my all time favorites.

Wow! I wasn't expecting a movie like this from Kurosawa. Really, really different. My wife and I were watching this pretty late in the evening yet we didn't fall asleep because this movie held our interest. It is somewhat of a surrealistic movie. The squalor that these people live in can be funny and desperate. Make sure you look at the extras and the interviews from some of the cast members & Kurosawa. It helps explain alot about the film. It also shows how Kurosawa had to paint backgrounds and also shows his artistic skills with the paintbrush - very interesting. People has criticized this film about it being disjointed but I didn't feel that. Each story is a story-in-itself with a brief interconnection to the rest of the cast. The actors are great. It can be a slow movie for those who expect alot of action but just give it time - it will develop. I saw this movie a couple of days ago and I can't stop thinking about it. I really haven't experienced this before. It is a beautiful film. To me, it is like viewing a Van Gogh painting (which I have only experienced in a book, unfortunately) and thinking about its impact later. This movie has everything: comedy, tragedy, love. Real complex situations. I have seen alot of Akira's movies and I put this in my top three movies. Here's the thing, though, if you can't understand it or get bored don't give up. Come back to it another time. It might have more impact. It took me a few times to sit through 2001 Space Odyssey but once I did I loved it. I watched it at night with nobody around - no interruptions. It was amazing. You might have to do that with this one. It probably isn't wise to leave the room or talk with people because you will miss all the nuances on the characters. By the way, Dodes'Ka-Den is an onomatopoeia. A word that when pronounced makes the sound of the thing. An example may be, choo-choo for a train. Apparantly Dodes'Ka-Den is the Japanese pronunciation of the sound a trolly makes. Strangely enough, though, I asked my daughter-in-law (who is from Japan) and she couldn't figure it out what it meant. But she is young so maybe she never heard a trolley. I was walking around the room saying, "Dodes'Ka-Den, Dodes'Ka-Den" like the kid in the movie. I was moving my arms and chugging across the room. She looked at me like I was from outer-space. I checked this out from the library but now I have put it on my Amazon Wishlist. This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD.UPDATE: I finally bought this DVD when it was decreased to $14.99 and it got here a day earlier than promised from Amazon. You can't beat that price for a Criterion Collection. Can't wait to see it for the 5th time!

I love the movie. Only thing is I loved it since early 1960s.The DVD I received and a quick check online indicates that they say this movie was released in 1970. Bullshi!I was 10-12 years old when I first saw this movie. That would be late 1950's or early 1960's. I saw the movie before I moved to the USA in 1963.I don't know what's with the official release date. But, look at Kurosawa's work. Look at the movie -- it's color, the scenery (not that much devastation left in 1970 -- but I lived it in 1955). The cinematography, sets, ... everything point to this movie being produced much earlier than the release date on the DVD and Wikipedia of 1970. Perhaps in 1970 for the US release, but, lets at least note the production date in Japan. The mid-1950s Japan is not same as 1970. Japan in 1950s was still on rice rations. Some, or much of the war damage has not been cleared, many adults were still psychologically damaged from the War ... hundreds/thousands of former Japanese soldiers wrere begging on the streets.The movie portrays immediate post-WWII Japan. Let's not mislead today's viewers otherwise!But, dang, this is a classic. I have loved this movie, as I have said since, oh, 1960. ... 55+ years ago.Makoto (Mac) Fletcher

After first seeing this on a long lost VHS cassette many years ago, this memory of this film has never faded. Then Hulu acquired the rights to stream the Criterion Collection and I must have watched five or six times, luxuriating in previously missed details. then after a few fabulous years of working my way through the Collection, it disappeared from Hulu though in recent years Criterion has introduced a dedicated (and pricey) streaming channel that can be previewed for 14 days. Shame Amazon didn't acquire the rights to the catalog and offer it as a premium channel. Anyway others here have reviewed this under-appreciated cultural snapshot, after all these years I only yesterday discovered that a friend had also seen it and likewise never forgotten it.

It mystifies me why this film receives so little attention among Kurosawa's oeuvre...it may not be his best gendaigeki, but it's far from his worst. I was struck by the numerous parallels to Itami's Tanpopo, to the point of being almost certain Itami saw this film as part of the inspiration for his vignette approach; if in Tanpopo the unifying element is food, here it's a location (the dump) and the condition (grinding poverty, despair) that location implies. It's just like Tanpopo, except of course for the fact that poverty and misery, on balance, aren't very funny...but then, Kurosawa et al never said it was a comedy, did they?

Started out slow. Wasn't sure. Then as you get to see the other characters, their lives, living on a garbage dump...what is the lesson? "All you have to do is survive?" "Be kind to your fellow man?" I watched this with others and we talked about it for quite sometime after the movie. Get it if you are a fan of Japanese Movies and Kurosawa. Let it work on you, give it a chance. A great snapshot of postwar Japan.

When you read the history behind making this film you wonder if that that would also make an intriguing movie. I have seen this before at a film festival when I was 16. It was bizarre back then but is still a strange movie. (Kurasawa's first colour feature)Stranger still that I have remembered this movie above the thousands of others I have seen in between. It's something special from a master film maker.

A fan of independent and foreign movies, I rented this years ago. Never forgot it. A different sort of Kurosawa but quirky good. So happy that Amazon has such a great foreign independent DVD selection that is friendly and easy to use. Hope that some of the foreign DVDs I saw listed get reformatted to play on our devices.

Dodes'ka-Den shows the everyday lives of slum dwellers on the outskirts of Toyko. They get through their difficult daily existance through dreams,alcohol and local gossip. It was made at a difficult time in Akira Kurosawa's career and life and its financial failure (amongst other things) led to a suicide attempt. The film mixies social realism with dark humour.Dodes'ka-Den is not up to the standards of Kurosawa's truly great films. Some of the humour did to me fall abit flat at times and perhaps even on the odd occasion there is a little sentimentality. However, the film shows the characters in all their nobility and flaws with affection. This was Kurosawa's first film in colour and its saturated with distinct bright colours, within very dour subject matter.Despite some flaws Kurosawa's humanitarism shines through. Its no masterpiece but it is the work of a master.Criterion have produced their usual excellent standards with this Dvd. There is a very interesting 36 minute documentary but no commentary. I am grateful to them for releasing what is after all, one of Kurosawa's rarer films.

Be warned! There are no English subtitles. It only lists Japanese and Italian in the product information but it would have helped if this had been flagged up more prominently.

It would have helped if I had read the description properly, but I was so excited to have found it. There are no English subtitles, but that is my fault. Still a stunning piece of cinema

Ho appena visto il film. Che dire? è una pellicola che bisogna guardare come si osserva un'opera d'arte. L'immagine, l'inquadratura, il colore, i chiaro-scuri, la luce e le ombre, i silenzi e gli sguardi dicono molto di più di quello che è un racconto di persone e relazioni che si svolgono in modo apparentemente confuso in un quartiere periferico della grande città. È un film che va in profondità, che affronta il senso dell'esistenza umana in condizioni estreme , l'allucinazione, il delirio, il suicidio, la miseria e insieme la grandezza della condizione umana e della realtà così come ci appare. Un film superlativo, come tutti i film di questo grande e straordinario regista qual è Akira Kurosawa.

Grazie a questo DVD è possibile apprezzare il cinema di uno dei maggiori registi del novecento, l'audio è sia in italiano che giapponese con sottotitoli, quindi è possibile apprezzarne ulteriormente il suono e i dialoghi. Racconta storie parallele nei ghetti di Tokyo, in parte con una sfumatura tragicomica, come il titolo onomatopeico per esempio, in parte grottesco e orribile. I film di Kurosawa sono a volte difficili da trovare, alcuni addirittura introvabili con traduzione italiana, consiglio quindi di acquistarlo prima che vada fuori catalogo.