The Lower Depths (1957)

The Lower Depths (NR)

"Japanese Blues"

Gorky's famous Russian play about the lower class living in squalor is transposed to Edo period Japan by master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.  It is an interesting juxtaposition, especially considering it was written right before the Russo-Japanese war of 1904, and Kurosawa handles it's transition without a conflict of interest.  Keeping the play structure intact by using a lack of camera angles and a flat set design allows for long acting takes with his cast.  Chewing through the material with gusto is legendary screen actor Toshiro Mifune but many of Akira's frequent collaborators have a part in the drama.  The slum-tennants are at odds with their betters and landlords, and despite their innante humor and obvious mental illnesses they function as a family and survive as a unit.  That is until Mifune's thief falls in love, but not with the lord's wife who he has been having an affair.  Soon there is murder and accusations and misinterpretations among the upper and lower classes, and while some of the drama may be over the top among the interesting cast of characters, the laughter they emit can be genuine and Toshiro's leading charisma is full force.  And if Akira's camera is restrained in order to revere the source play, the choices of setting and set design only go to enhance both Gorky's and Kurosawa's legacies.

7 That One Old Dudes out of 10 (GOOD)

Stray Dog (1949)

Stray Dog (PG)

"Hot Dog"

Master director Akira Kurusawa casts his greatest star, Toshiro Mifune, against type as an idealistic rookie police officer in 1940s Tokyo.  Mifune is distraught at the prospect of losing his position when he loses his police issue pistol, become frantic when it is discovered the gun has been used in a recent.  Mifune is subdued yet boiling under the surface, but the real masterstroke of Stray Dog is the image of post-war post-surrender life in Japan.  The slums, the people, the empty streets, the real life locations; they all echo ghost like and sadly angry from the past in stark black and white photography.  Other pleasures are the vintage Japanese baseball footage, the above-the-law attitudes of the underworld denizens,  Mifune has done better police procedurals (High and Low), but Mifune's wise old partner provides the humor and Toshiro provides the struggle between law and order and the law of the wild:  Kill or be killed.

8 Somebody install some Sony Air Conditioning out of 10 (GREAT)

Ikiru (1952)

Ikiru (NR) - Review

"Old man take a look at my life"

Akira Kurusawa is primarily known in the west as the top Japanese Samurai period film director.  However, when you delve into his catalog it is movies like Ikiru that can really let you understand him as a film maker and a person.  The film (the title translates to "To Live" in english) is a little post WWII drama about an elderly government official who revels in his bureaucracy.  When he is diagnosed with cancer he recognizes the waste of his life and the waste of red tape and focuses on prioritizing the building of a  playground for local and unprivileged children.  Ikiru shines a spotlight on the Japanese government's inefficiency and waste, his society's inability to deal with the trauma of the postwar period and the fractured society of Japan itself.  Perhaps a bit hard to access for Americans (Japanese acting can appear over melodramatic) and being so early in his career it is dry and without much visual artistry, nevertheless Kurusawa's Ikiru is a simple masterful film made by a simple master.

7.5 Radiation Fears out of 10 (GOOD)