Dodes'ka-den
1970 · 140 min
Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Written by Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto. Starring Yoshitaka Zushi, Kin Sugai, Toshiyuki Tonomura, Shinsuke Minami.
On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.
Critics 73% · audiences 77% · streaming on HBO Max, Criterion Channel · 1 Oscar nomination