Dodesukaden (1970)

Dodesukaden
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Written by Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, and Shinobu Hashimoto from a novel by Shugoro Yamamoto
1970/Japan
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065649/reference
First viewing/Criterion Channel

A film must be made with the heart, not the mind. I think today’s young filmmakers have forgotten this and instead they make films through their calculations. That is why Japanese films no longer have an audience. In all honesty, films must be made to target the hearts. During the time of Ozu, my mentor, and also in my time, no filmmaker made films based on theory and calculation, and that was why Japan’s cinema was capable of shaping its golden years. Young filmmakers use techniques to humiliate the audience. This is wrong. We must serve cinema and make a film that would stimulate the audience. Ultimately, the aim should be to make an artistic film. That’s simple, isn’t it? — Akira Kurosawa

This was Kurosawa’s first color film.  And what colors!

The setting is a slum/squatters camp that seems to be located at the edge of a garbage dump.  The plot is made up of interlocking stories and vignettes of everyday life.  Some are comic, some are tragic, and some are a little bit of both.  A key linking device is a mentally-challenged boy who is obsessed with streetcars .  He is the conductor of an imaginary one that travels back and forth through the settlement throughout the day while he chants “Dodes’kaden, dodes’kaden, dodes’kaden” imitating the motor of the streetcar.

Other stories include a girl who is abused and overworked by her uncle while her aunt is in the hospital; a beggar with a big imagination who lives with his small son who scavanges for their food; a couple of comic drunks and their long-suffering wives; a prostitute who lives with her husband and many children; etc.  It would seem to be a grim life but Kurasawa endows everything with vibrant. almost magical color and there is plenty of kindness to go along with the pain.

I knew very little about this going in and was enchanted by it.  This doesn’t look anything like the Kurosawa we are used to but it was clearly made by a master who went wild with the possibilities of color cinematography.  Recommended.

Dodesukaden received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film

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