KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Musashi94 Kurosawa was a great admirer of Russian literature and The Lower Depths is another attempt to adapt a Russian literary classic to the big screen after his previous effort, Dostoevsky's The Idiot was butchered by the studio. Like Maxim Gorky's original play, The Lower Depths is an atmospheric examination of the lives of a group of slum dwellers, which this adaptation places in Shogunate-era Edo.The limited setting (we never leave the slum) and the lack of cinematic flourishes creates a somber mood that wonderfully hangs over the film like a fog. In many ways, The Lower Depths feels more like a filmed play rather than a traditional movie. The sets of the dingy slum are perfect, feeling decrepit enough without being exaggerated. The limited camera movement helps give the audience a sort of 'fly on the wall' perspective while keeping them from feeling too detached through Kurosawa's masterful use of editing and a few strategically placed camera movements and close-ups.Unfortunately, the plot can't quite live up to the wonderful setting. The main plot, concerning thief Sutekichi (played by the great Toshiro Mifune) and his relationship with the landlady Osugi (Isuzu Yamada, who had starred opposite Mifune earlier that year in Throne of Blood) feels a bit melodramatic for my tastes; particularly when it's revealed that Sutekichi is falling in love with Osugi's younger and more pleasant sister, Okayo (the prolific Kyoko Kagawa). While these elements are present in the original source material, Kurosawa seems torn between focusing on the love triangle or making the the film a full-on ensemble picture. As such, he focuses less on the love triangle than other adaptations, such as Jean Renoir's 1936 film. This works out to the detriment of the a main plot as it is quickly overshadowed by the various subplots which are more interesting and nuanced. Mifune also feels a bit miscast here and I feel someone like Masayuki Mori would have been a better fit for the role. Mifune is a great actor but his range was never the greatest and Sutekichi is more thoughtful and introspective than the kind of role he was typically cast in.The supporting cast is excellent however. As mentioned previously, it's much more entertaining to watch this collection of misfits than to worry about whatever the A-team is up to. Eijiro Tono as the tinker and Kamatari Fujiwara as the drunken actor are particularly good but they all moments where they shine. The various subplots involving this group are all interesting and engaging, with the only real weakness being that the narrative forces them to step out of the spotlight for the main plot every once in a while.Overall, The Lower Depths is an interesting experiment from Kurosawa with some excellent acting and a wonderful sense of atmosphere but I can't really place it among his best works due to its narrative flaws.

TheLittleSongbird Without it being one of Akira Kurosawa's finest, The Lower Depths is an exceptional film. As with any Kurosawa film it is wonderfully made, with well-crafted sets and fine use of camera work. Kurosawa directs superbly, always with a delicate touch while giving detail and humanity to his stories and characters. And those they do here. The story has a lot of intensity and unsentimental in its telling of lives without hope, and the characters are powerfully written with a lot of humanity. The ensemble playing is really magnificent with the standouts being Toshiro Mifune, charismatic as ever, and Kamatari Fujiwara, who conveys an astonishing range of emotions here. My only real criticism of The Lower Depths is the rather abrupt ending, other than that it is a really well-done film with a lot of things to like about Kurosawa's films present. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Luis Guillermo Cardona We are in czarist Russia. In a dilapidated tenement - a kind of stable with straw included but, where instead of animals, humans coexist - there is the encounter of a group of disparate people united, however, the loneliness, frustration, or voluntary exclusion imposed by poverty... or bitter and the corresponding abandonment of those around them. They are men and women of various ages and very different paths. They had past, but now seems to have no future. What happens between them, which is like a circle that spins round incessantly, only makes sense if you understand the statism of such lives. However, even for them comes the option to renew when it comes to occupy a space of an elderly white suit, who then give an example worthy of wisdom and sanity to consider.Based on the homonymous play by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky, staged in 1902, with notable success, "DONZOKO" is a loose adaptation that makes Japanese Kurosawa and adapt to the atmosphere where, unlike Gorky who gave equal importance all the characters, here given the greatest weight to sensitive Grandpa and Sutekichi the thief in love with the oppressed Okayo. When everything is flowing in a judicious set of personalities, confrontation and sobering experience, the skepticism of the remarkable Russian writer (not for nothing assumed the pseudonym of Maksim Gorky, roughly translated as High Bitterness), with the condescension of Kurosawa drives the story in one direction nihilistic or as well working out and pools in insignificance. Any options transcendent existence, which seemed clearly raised with the grandfather, then diluted into pessimism and inconsistency. And viewers inevitably sink us feeling empty and one ¿and then? what not get a response. Say that this film is only suitable for a demanding public in the pursuit of human understanding and, hopefully, is armored with a strong optimism about life to this dark story not tear the guts. Are these words of Fritz Lang that by this time, I precise: "It has made a mistake if the public comes from a projection of the soul in their heels."

MartinHafer Aside from a few very early films where he was a brand new director and had little choice but to work with second-rate material, this is one of the few poor films by the famed director, Akira Kurosawa. In fact, had a less famous director made this film, I think it would have been promptly forgotten or even disliked--mostly because the film is so gosh-darn talky and unlikable.The film is set in a flophouse, of sorts, for the lowest elements of society. Inside this large but very shabby room live a variety of down and out people--a dying woman, her alcoholic husband, a thief, a prostitute, an inscrutable old man and others. It's obvious that this was originally a play, as the room is THE set for the film and people walk on and off just like a play--making it seem very confined and claustrophobic. As for the plot, the folks just talk and talk and talk. The only real letup is the almost Buddha or Christ-like old man who is new to the room. Unlike the rest, he has maintained his humanity and acts, at times, more like a social worker than a resident. While I suppose some find all this interesting, I just found it dull, depressing and incessant and couldn't wait for it to end because the material is just unappealing and bad. I am really not sure if anyone could have made the material interesting, except perhaps Ed Wood!My advice is seek out other Kurosawa films--almost any other would do. This take on Maxim Gorky's play, THE LOWER DEPTHS, is just too dated and dull.