poe-48833 THE LOWER DEPTHS is yet another of Kurosawa's insightful explorations of The Human Condition- in this case, the day-to-day struggle against Abject Poverty. "A thief is a poor man's best friend," one of the Denizens of The Depths points out; an unfortunate Truth, as the lack of Money often leaves the Poor with few real options. I see it on a daily basis in the neighborhood where I live. Kurosawa is one of the few Truly GREAT directors to tackle such stories. (I've always thought of DODESKADEN ("CLICKETY-CLACK") as yet another of Kurosawa's more insightful Dramas, one that dealt with- among other things- Mental Retardation. I could go on, but you get my gist.) THE LOWER DEPTHS manages to capture the Utter Boredom and lack of Purpose that motivates many poor people; it is to be applauded.

davidgkimberley I don't know what the budget of 'The Lower Depths' was but it certainly proves that a great film can made for very little. 'The Lower Depths' tells the story of a group of people living in a one room slum of various different occupations and reasons behind their predicament. I didn't really get when it is supposed to be set but its really irrelevant given the timelessness of the production. The first 10 - 20 minutes feel a bit like a theatre, rather than a cinema, production given that the set for nearly the entirety of the film is one room. Whether or not this changes is hard to say but I felt something quite strange about this in that, I didn't feel like I was an external being, I really felt like I was in the room with the actors laughing, singing and drinking with them and that was fantastic.Toshiro Mifune is probably the character that comes closest to a lead role and as always he is fantastic. However, I would say that Isuzu Yamada (who plays Osugi) is also brilliant in a nurse Ratchet like fashion, and the same is true for Bokuzen Hidari (who plays 'grandad'). Whilst those three, for me, were outstanding take nothing away from the rest of the cast they are all very, very good - even if the women's wailings are incessantly annoying.Whilst I wouldn't say that The Lower Depths is Kurosawa's best film by any means it does provide both entertainment and a message. There are both very amusing and very exciting bits but at the same time there's a constant air of thought provoking meaning that you can take what you want from. This isn't the best film ever but its an excellent one, go and see it!

Claudio Carvalho A group of worthless people lives in a slum, including a sick terminal woman with her drunkard husband; a gambler; a pilgrim; a former samurai and an actor. The prostitute Okayo (Kyôko Kagawa) disputes the love of the thief Sutekichi (Toshirô Mifune) with her landlady and sister Osugi (Isuzu Yamada) that is married with Rokubei (Ganjiro Nakamura), leading to a tragedy.I have watched most of Akira Kurosawa's films and the unpleasant "Donzoko" is the only one that I really did not like. It is quite impossible to write a plot summary of the annoying, pointless and dull story. The theatrical screenplay is tiresome and too long despite the good acting and the histrionic Kyôko Kagawa and in the end this is a lesser work of this outstanding director. My vote is four. Title (Brazil): "Ralé" ("The Rabble")

Luis Guillermo Cardona We are in czarist Russia. In a dilapidated tenement - a kind of stable with straw included but, where instead of animals, humans coexist - there is the encounter of a group of disparate people united, however, the loneliness, frustration, or voluntary exclusion imposed by poverty... or bitter and the corresponding abandonment of those around them. They are men and women of various ages and very different paths. They had past, but now seems to have no future. What happens between them, which is like a circle that spins round incessantly, only makes sense if you understand the statism of such lives. However, even for them comes the option to renew when it comes to occupy a space of an elderly white suit, who then give an example worthy of wisdom and sanity to consider.Based on the homonymous play by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky, staged in 1902, with notable success, "DONZOKO" is a loose adaptation that makes Japanese Kurosawa and adapt to the atmosphere where, unlike Gorky who gave equal importance all the characters, here given the greatest weight to sensitive Grandpa and Sutekichi the thief in love with the oppressed Okayo. When everything is flowing in a judicious set of personalities, confrontation and sobering experience, the skepticism of the remarkable Russian writer (not for nothing assumed the pseudonym of Maksim Gorky, roughly translated as High Bitterness), with the condescension of Kurosawa drives the story in one direction nihilistic or as well working out and pools in insignificance. Any options transcendent existence, which seemed clearly raised with the grandfather, then diluted into pessimism and inconsistency. And viewers inevitably sink us feeling empty and one ¿and then? what not get a response. Say that this film is only suitable for a demanding public in the pursuit of human understanding and, hopefully, is armored with a strong optimism about life to this dark story not tear the guts. Are these words of Fritz Lang that by this time, I precise: "It has made a mistake if the public comes from a projection of the soul in their heels."