Alex Deleon DODESKADEN, 1970. Rarely Seen Kurosawa masterpiece viewed at the ENCORE theater, Hollywood - An expressionistic pageant of The Human Comedy that ranks with the best of Kurosawa: Written as Herman Pevner for the Rafu Shimpo, Japanese daily of Los Angeles. (Spring 1975). When Dodes'kaden first came out five years ago it was not too well received, mainly because the Japanese public had come to expect a certain kind of Picture from Master director Akira Kurosawa -- movies with lots of samurai action, a definite story line, and especially, lots of Toshire Mifune, the Japanese equivalent of John Wayne in Kurosawa films.Dodes'kaden, a Fellini-like portrait of a shanty town built from the debris of the Tokyo city dump and populated with the dregs of society with no plot to speak of and no swashbuckling central hero, was just too different and too far-out for most people to accept. Of course it is not unusual for the public to find it difficult to accept a radical change in style from an established director. When Hitchcock came out with "The Birds" a lot of people accused him of sensationalism, senility, and everything else -- now, a dozen years later, Birds is generally recognized as one of his masterpieces."Dodeskaden" was Kurosawa's first color film and, like Fellini and Antonioni before him, when he finally turned to color he went directly to surrealistic expressionism. As Antonioni in "Blowup" he had whole sections of the ground painted in bright colors to suit his vision for certain scenes, and in general the use of color in the film is not only spectacular but ingenious. Now that the real world has -- shall we say, "caught up with" Kurosawa -- vis-à- vis the absurdity of life here in 1975 -- the absurd world of Dodeskaden, 1970 May not seem so far-out after all. As for the title, "Do-des-ka-den" is the sound that a trolley car makes -- something like "clackety- clack" -- in everyday Japanese. The hero, Rokuchan, (Yoshitaka Zushi) is a strange but jolly teenage boy who has a thing about trolleys and makes a daily round of the shantytown in an imaginary trolley car shooing people from the tracks, picking up and discharging invisible passengers, and lustily shouting "do-des- ka-den!" as he goes on his merry way. Taking Rokuchan's trip with him around Hovel City we encounter an incredible variety of people including a couple of grungy alcoholic wife swapping buddies -- a striking comment on today's decadent sex-obsessed suburban mentality. The people in the film are more or less carnival mirror images of the people we see around us every day. The whole film is, in fact, a commentary on the absurd pretentious of an insane society, and the message, if there is one, is perhaps that we would all be a lot better off if we were more accepting of each other's foibles. No matter what the content of his films, Kurosawa's message has always been "Why can't people try to be a little happier?"Particularly outstanding in a cast loaded with talent is Banjun Zaburo, one of the world's cleverest screen comedians, as Mr. Shima, the little man with the epileptic tic and oversized limp -- shades of Chaplin at his best -- and Kiyoko Tange is also memorable as his Amazon-like, no-nonsense domineering wife."Dodeskaden" is an expressionistic pageant of The Human Comedy that ranks with the best of Kurosawa and, if viewed with an open mind, can only make you feel a little better about being a member of our more and more endangered human species.

rad1001 Kurasawa said that this film is about the heart. IMHO, most people are unequipped to understand the film because they lack experience in thinking from a Buddhist perspective. This film begins with several minutes of chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo which is the mantra of all Nichiren Buddhists. We chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo because that is the primary method that we use to practice Buddhism. The practice is somewhat like praying and somewhat like meditation, but it is different too, especially because it is very high-charged. Nichiren Buddhists have found that this practice helps our lives in many unexpected ways. The words literally mean "Praise to the great law of the universe" that Shakyamuni Buddha expounded in The Lotus Sutra. Nichiren urged people to chant Nam-Myo-Renge-Kyo to develop their own Buddha nature and, cooperatively, to bring about world peace.Nichiren Buddhists understand that chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo is a tool which each person can use to awaken their inner Buddha nature and experience energy, purpose and a joyful life. The reference to the children throwing things at "the trolley freak" could easily be taken as a direct reference to "Bodisatva Never Disparaging," an important legendary figure in Nichiren Buddhism.I saw this film many years ago when I knew about Nichiren Buddhism but was not actively practicing. The movie haunted me for three decades. I wanted to see it again but was unable to find the title. I finally watched it again last night. I watched it with two questions in mind. My first question was about the man who ran the imaginary(?) trolley. It seems to me that he is representative of all Nichiren Buddhists in that he uses his practice of chanting to draw on a continuous supply of energy from his deepest inner resources. There were other references to Buddhism that could easily be missed. One was the parallel between the man who tricked the would-be suicide into believing he took poison and the parable of the wise potions maker from the Lotus Sutra, who tricked his children into believing that he was dead in order to shock them into their senses. The wise man's statement at the end of that scene, when he said that there is a remedy for every poison, is an obvious statement of the Buddhist principle, "Hendoku Iyaku," which means "turning poison into elixir."Commentators who should know have suggested that the trolley character represented Kurasawa. This should be no surprise. Kurasawa was demonstrating his own determination to keep going despite the near end of his film-making career after Tora Tora Tora. People who chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo know what it is like to vigorously chant your way through your problems. Daisaku Ikeda, Honorary President of the Soka Gakai, the worldwide lay organization of Nichiren Buddhists, says that the rhythm of chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, (which is a very physical practice), is like galloping on a horse. That is not a far stretch from the clickety clack of a train. In fact, I believe that the name of the film is actually a substitution for the phrase Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo.The other question I had on reviewing the film was whether the characters in the story are based on the psychological states of mind known in Buddhism as "ten thousand worlds in a solitary moment of existence" (Ichinen Sanzen). A simplified version of this is the ten worlds, consisting, in ascending order, of hell, hunger, anger, animality, tranquility, rapture, learning, absorption, Bodisatva (the state of caring more for the good of others than for the good of yourself) and Buddahood or enlightenment. According to Nichiren, most people in this despoiled age, known as the "latter day of the law," spend most of their time bouncing around in the lower four worlds and occasionally experiencing life in the fifth and sixth worlds. In the movie, it is obvious that several characters are living in a psychological state of hell. Many others are dominated by hunger, anger and the animalistic instinct to fear those who are more powerful and to pray on the weak. We all possess these potentialities but some learn how to cultivate states that are known as "the higher worlds." Two characters clearly exhibit this: the wise man who seemed to protect all the people in the shanty town and the Buddha-like character who loved and raised the children that his wife bore from other men. The trolley driver was enigmatic but he was also the most self-assured and perhaps the happiest person in the story.Why did he pray for his mother to become smarter? Because if she became smarter, she would not be as bothered by little things that have no consequence, such as all the stupid people who made fun of him because, to them, his trolley was invisible.This film is an allegory. It is about hidden meanings. I cannot say what was in Kurasawa's heart when he made this movie, but to me, it is a very clear affirmation of the optimistic message of Nichiren Buddhism. I would still like to know whether Kurasawa practiced Nichiren Buddhism. With such American cultural luminaries as Herbie Hancock and Tina Turner practicing Nichiren Buddhism, it would not surprise me if Kurasawa used this popular spiritual practice at some point in his life too.

jcward The title is onomatopoeic, the sound of a streetcar clacking on the rails. It is metaphoric for all that the people who live in the dump cannot have. The misery of those people is illustrated by the passing streetcar which represents the relatively unobtainable rich life of the middle class. The pathos of the little boy and his beloved yet sadly insane father is most touching. This was Kurosawa's first film in colour and he uses beautifully shocking hues, colours seen only in dreams. The movie is surreal and surpassing in beauty. The compassion for humanity is the underling force, but as always, Kurosawa is focused on capturing the beauty of the film. It is a masterwork by a genius of cinema.

Claudio Carvalho "Dô desu ka den" is the first colored movie of Master Akira Kurosawa, and surprisingly is not about samurais, ronins, warlords or battlefields. It is inside a very poor community in a slum in Tokyo, where the dwellers are homeless drunkards, beggars, tramps, abused women, losers. I do not know the reason why Kurosawa selected this tragic theme and environment to put colors, but indeed they are very sad stories, some of them heart-breaking. I personally like the touching story of the boy and his father that dream with a house of their own and built by them; the story of the retarded boy that believes he pilots a train; the story of the man that raises five children as if they were their own sons and daughters; and the story of the young woman abused by her stepfather. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "Dodeskaden – O Caminho da Vida" ("Dodeskaden – The Way of the Life")