{"id":13270,"date":"2010-11-12T11:54:07","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T18:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=13270"},"modified":"2024-05-28T23:07:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T06:07:05","slug":"lower-depths-the-1957","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=13270","title":{"rendered":"Lower Depths, The (1957)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;How can you go to hell if you&#8217;re already there?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Lower-Depths-1957-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Lower-Depths-1957-Poster-211x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-65008\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Lower-Depths-1957-Poster-211x300.png 211w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Lower-Depths-1957-Poster-90x128.png 90w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Lower-Depths-1957-Poster-190x270.png 190w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Lower-Depths-1957-Poster.png 697w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAmidst the miseries of a flophouse in Edo-era Japan, a thief (Toshiro Mifune) falls in love with the sister (Kyoko Kagawa) of his married landlady (Isuzu Yamada), who jealously seeks revenge.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Akira Kurosawa Films<\/li>\n<li>Ensemble Cast<\/li>\n<li>Japanese Films<\/li>\n<li>Love Triangle<\/li>\n<li>Play Adaptations<\/li>\n<li>Revenge<\/li>\n<li>Toshiro Mifune Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThe above synopsis of this adaptation of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lower_Depths\">Maxim Gorky&#8217;s 1902 stage play<\/a> &#8212; transported by writer\/director Kurosawa to 19th century Japan &#8212; isn&#8217;t quite accurate, given that <em>The Lower Depths<\/em> is actually a classic ensemble tale, one more concerned with representing the miserable lives of its collective cast than with focusing on any particular protagonist&#8217;s personal tragedy. To that end, we bear witness to a cynical tinker (Eijiro Tono) waiting impatiently for his sick wife (Eiko Miyoshi) to die; a whiny prostitute (Akemi Negishi) lamenting her fall from grace; an alcoholic actor (Kamatari Fujiwara) complaining about the damage he&#8217;s doing to his &#8220;bitol organs&#8221;; and more. <\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Kurosawa and Hideo Oguni&#8217;s relatively faithful screenplay &#8212; strategically limited to the confines of the sound-stage flophouse &#8212; basically consists of the characters sitting around kvetching about their lot in life, and yelling at each other. It&#8217;s difficult to keep track of who&#8217;s who, or to really care about any of their fates, given that so many weakly developed storylines are overlapping. Not even Mifune&#8217;s love triangle with Kagawa and Yamada bears much impact &#8212; we haven&#8217;t been given enough of a chance to know them as individuals. All in all, this is a surprisingly disappointing Kurosawa flick, one that I don&#8217;t consider must-see viewing except for his most steadfast fans. If you do decide to watch it, however, wait for a most enjoyable and bizarrely impromptu musical &#8220;performance&#8221; near the end &#8212; my favorite scene by far. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Isuzu Yamada as Mifune&#8217;s jealous lover<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/lower-depths-1957-yamada.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/lower-depths-1957-yamada.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13277\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Kazuo Yamasaki&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/lower-depths-1957-cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/lower-depths-1957-cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13276\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; feel free to skip this one unless you&#8217;re a diehard Kurosawa fan. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0050330\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1962\/02\/10\/archives\/screen-kurosawas-lower-depthsjapanese-version-of-gorky-play-opens.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/allmovie.com\/work\/the-lower-depths-30417\">All Movie Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/82119\/the-lower-depths#articles-reviews?articleId=290049\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/the-lower-depths\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;How can you go to hell if you&#8217;re already there?&#8221; Synopsis: Amidst the miseries of a flophouse in Edo-era Japan, a thief (Toshiro Mifune) falls in love with the sister (Kyoko Kagawa) of his married landlady (Isuzu Yamada), who jealously seeks revenge. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Akira Kurosawa Films Ensemble Cast Japanese Films Love Triangle Play Adaptations Revenge Toshiro Mifune Films Review: The above synopsis of this adaptation of Maxim Gorky&#8217;s 1902 stage play &#8212; transported by writer\/director Kurosawa&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=13270\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13270"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97181,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13270\/revisions\/97181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}