The Lower Depths

Film Info

Japan
1957
125 minutes
Black and White
1.33:1
Japanese

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