Synopsis
Jean Renoir and Akira Kurosawa, two of cinema’s greatest directors, transform Maxim Gorky’s classic proletariat play The Lower Depths in their own ways for their own times. Renoir, working amidst the rise of Hitler and the Popular Front in France, had need to take license with the dark nature of Gorky’s source material, softening its bleak outlook. Kurosawa, firmly situated in the postwar world, found little reason for hope. He remained faithful to the original with its focus on the conflict between illusion and reality—a theme he would return to over and over again. Working with their most celebrated actors (Gabin with Renoir; Mifune with Kurosawa), each film offers a unique look at cinematic adaptation—where social conditions and filmmaking styles converge to create unique masterpieces.
Cast
| Sutekichi (the thief) | Toshiro Mifune |
| Osugi (the landlady) | Isuzu Yamada |
| Okayo (her sister) | Kyoko Kagawa |
| Rokubei (her husband) | Ganjiro Nakamura |
| Yoshisaburo (the gambler) | Koji Mitsui |
| The actor | Kamatari Fujiwara |
| Osen (the prostitute) | Akemi Negishi |
| The ex-samurai | Minoru Chiaki |
| Otaki | Nijiko Kiyokawa |
| Tomekichi (the tinker) | Eijiro Tono |
| Asa (his wife) | Eiko Miyoshi |
| Police agent | Kichijiro Ueda |
| Tatsu | Haruo Tanaka |
| Kahei (the pilgrim) | Bokuzen Hidari |
Credits
| Director | Akira Kurosawa |
| Producers | Akira Kurosawa and Shojiro Motoki |
| Screenplay | Akira Kurosawa |
| (based on the Maxim Gorky play Na dne) | Hideo Oguni |
| Cinematography | Kazuo Yamasaki |
| Art direction | Yoshiro Muraki |
| Music | Masaru Sato |
| Sound | Fumio Yanoguchi |
| Sound effects | Ichiro Minawa |
| Lighting | Shigeru Mori |
Disc Features
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:
- New high-definition digital transfers of both films, with restored image and sound
- Audio commentary on Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths featuring Japanese-film expert Donald Richie (A Hundred Years of Japanese Film)
- A 33-minute documentary on Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths from the series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, including interviews with Kurosawa, actress Kyoko Kagawa, art director Yoshiro Muraki, and others
- Introduction to Jean Renoir’s The Lower Depths by the director
- Cast biographies for Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
- Original theatrical trailer for Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths
- New essay by Keiko McDonald (From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films) and Thomas Rimer (A Reader’s Guide to Japanese Literature) for the Kurosawa film; new essay by film scholar Alexander Sesonske, author of Jean Renoir: The French Films 1924-1939, for the Renoir
- New and improved subtitle translations
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer editions
From the Current
Akira Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths
by Dec 30, 2003Akira Kurosawa was a man of his time, who participated fully in the artistic and intellectual world of Japan from the 1930s until his death in 1998. Although filmgoers may think of him in terms of the screen images he created, Kurosawa maintained a deep interest in the theater throughout his . . .
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Questions regarding The Lower Depths.
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