Waste of time

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

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.

The title is the sound that one of the characters makes as he drives his imaginary trolley across the garbage dump where the characters live. The film is based on a series of stories by Shugoro Yamamoto and tells the story of a group of people who effectively live in ramshackle homes on the edge of the dump. It's a mix of laughter and sadness.First color film made by Akria Kurasowa has been something I've wanted to see for a long time. Weirdly it was often listed as being only available in a shortened version from a three or four hour original due to an error in the run time in some promotional material. I was holding out for the full version, waiting to see what Kurasowa wanted us to see, only to find out on the recent release by Criterion that the 140 minute version is the full version.Finally sitting down to see the film last night I'm of mixed emotions about the film. First and foremost its visually linked to every film that followed. You can see every other of Kurasowals remaining six films reflected in this movie, down to the painted sunsets. Its a striking film in its use of color and you can understand why it took him so long to a film stock he would he happy with (of course there are failed projects as well). The film is a visual work of art.(Though be warned if you're going to see this on your widescreen TV this was shot 1.33 so will appear in normal TV ratio.) The rest of the film is a mixed bag. Part of the problem is that the lives of all of these people don't quite come together. As separate tales they all work well but as a filmic whole they don't hang as one. I don't blame Kurasowa since one can't always hit things out of the box, especially when some one like Robert Altman who specialized in multi-character films of this sort occasionally bombed himself.This isn't to say that there aren't reasons to see the film. As will all Kurasowa films there are always reasons to see his films, whether they work or not. The first trip of the "trolley" is one of the best things Kurasowa ever did and is worth the price of a rental. Its one of the most magical moments in film history as the trolley is inspected and taken out. The father and son living in the car is touching (though ultimately very sad) and there are other bits and pieces that shine (like the cast which is across the board great) and one should at least try the film as something different from a man we usually associated with samurai films or crime dramas.Its an intriguing misfire from a master filmmaker which means in this case means its better than most other filmmakers successes.Between 6 and 7 as a whole, much higher in pieces.

Kurosawa, fresh into color, losses sight of his usual themes of truth and perception of reality and opts for a depressing take on Tokyo's slums. Kurosawa stretches for a style that was, in my opinion, his antithesis- that is to say, I feel as if Kurosawa wanted to make an Ozu picture. Poorly paced, poorly conceived, this movie is a rare dud in this auteur body of excellent work. While Ikiru, while being mundane and depressing, was still interesting and well paced, and while Stray Dog depicted the slums and social poverty of Japan without being too heavy handed or boring, do desu ka den has all the somberness that one could expect with its content, with none of the redeeming qualities of earlier Kurosawa pictures.Be warned, this is not a movie that Kurosawa should be judged by.

Kurosawa really blew it on this one. Every genius is allowed a failure. The concept is fine but the execution is badly blurred.There is an air of fantasy about this film making it something of an art film. The poverty stricken of Tokyo deserve a fairer and more realistic portrayal. Many of them have interesting stories to tell. A very disappointing film.