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Donzoko (The Lower Depths) (1957)

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Average Rating: 8.2/10
Reviews Counted: 5
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 1

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Critic Reviews: 1
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 0

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Movie Info

Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa transferred the setting of Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths from Imperial Russia to his own country's Edo Period--which, like Gorky's 19th-century setting, was an era of great cultural advances, offset by the miseries of those who weren't in the aristocracy. Kurosawa's film concentrates on Toshiro Mifune, playing a crooked gambler who falls in love with the sister (Kyoko Kagawa) of his cruel landlady (Isuzu Yamada). Herself carrying a torch for Mifune, the

Unrated, 2 hr. 5 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Directed By: Akira Kurosawa

Written By: Maxim Gorky, Akira Kurosawa

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1957 Wide

Cast

Toshiro Mifune
Sutekichi the thief
Isuzu Yamada
Osugi the Landlady
Kyoko Kagawa
Okayo her sister
Bokuzen Hidari
Kahei the priest
Ganjiro Nakamura
Rokubei her husband
Minoru Chiaki
The Ex-Samurai
Kamatari Fujiwara
The Actor
Yu Fujiki
Unokichi
Nijiko Kiyokawa
Otaki
Koji Mitsui
Yoshisaburo the gambler
Eiko Miyoshi
Asa his wife
Akemi Negishi
Osen the prostitute
Haruo Tanaka
Tatsu
Eijir� Tono
Tomekichi the tinker
Kichijiro Ueda
Police Agent
Atsushi Watanabe
Kuma

Critic Reviews for Donzoko (The Lower Depths)

All Critics (7) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (1) | DVD (10)

This is the purpose of the picture, to make one suffer and sympathize with them. Kurosawa's darkly imagistic technique achieves this depressing aim.

September 10, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Times

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Bosley Crowther

New York Times

Top Critic

Bleak comedy about a virtual flophouse in Edo-period Japan based on Gorky's play. Top-flight ensemble performance.

September 2, 2010 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews

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Louis Proyect

rec.arts.movies.reviews

For the first hour and fifteen minutes of the movie, we make only limited excursions out of the tenement, and it begins to feel as though we've moved in ourselves. Kurosawa may have intended this, but it doesn't make for very satisfying viewing.

September 10, 2005 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com

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Jake Euker

Filmcritic.com

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Audience Reviews for Donzoko (The Lower Depths)

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This is part of the criterion collection, a early Black and White from Japan, with English subtitles, Kind of boring at first but as it plays out you can't help but to stay with it, about a houseful of beggars and lower lower class and there daily lives, Its worth 2 stars

May 24, 2010

Bruce Bruce

Super Reviewer

really intersting film. a movie by kurosawa about poverty and the people who live in it. there are some very profound things in this film and i think it really helps one to understand an impoverished mind set. to see people living like this is troubling, and kurosawa did a great job with the diologue as usual. very

April 24, 2007

danny d

Super Reviewer

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