Dodes'ka-den

Dodes'ka-den
Directed by	Akira Kurosawa
Written by	Akira Kurosawa Hideo Oguni Shinobu Hashimoto
Starring	Yoshitaka Zushi Kin Sugai Toshiyuki Tonomura
Music by	Tōru Takemitsu
Cinematography	Yasumichi Fukuzawa Takao Saitô
Edited by	Reiko Kaneko
Production company	Toho Studios
Distributed by	Toho
Release dates	October 31, 1970 (1970-10-31)
Running time	140 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Dodes'ka-den (どですかでん, Dodesukaden, literally, "Clickety-clack") is a 1970 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa and based on the Shūgorō Yamamoto book Kisetsu no nai machi ("The Town Without Seasons").

Plot

The film focuses on the lives of a variety of characters who happen to live in a rubbish dump. The first to be introduced is a mentally challenged boy who lives in a world of fantasy in which he is a tram conductor. He is both the tram and the tram driver and follows a set route and schedule through the dump; his dedication to the fantasy is fanatical. The film title refers to a Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound made by a tram or train while in motion ( "Do-desu-ka-den do-desu-ka-den do-desu-ka-den"). The sound is made by the boy as he makes his daily faux-tram route through the dump.

Cast

• Yoshitaka Zushi as Roku-chan
• Kin Sugai as Okuni
• Toshiyuki Tonomura as Taro Sawagami
• Shinsuke Minami as Ryotaro Sawagami
• Yuko Kusunoki as Misao Sawagami
• Junzaburô Ban as Yukichi Shima
• Kiyoko Tange as Mrs. Shima
• Michio Hino as Mr. Ikawa
• Keiji Furuyama as Mr. Matsui
• Tappei Shimokawa as Mr. Nomoto
• Kunie Tanaka as Hatsutaro Kawaguchi
• Jitsuko Yoshimura as Yoshie Kawaguchi
• Hisashi Igawa as Masuo Masuda
• Hideko Okiyama as Tatsu Masuda
• Kamatari Fujiwara as Suicidal Old Man

Production

Dodesukaden was Kurosawa's first color film. After the success of Red Beard, it took Kurosawa five years before this film appeared. Very few of the actors from Kurosawa's stock company of the 1950s and 1960s were in it, and most of the cast were relatively unknown. Dodesukaden was unlike anything Kurosawa had made before. It gained an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film in the 44th Academy Awards. Dodesukaden was a financial failure, and came during the worst possible time in Kurosawa's life. Dodesukaden was only made by the cooperation and co-producing of three other Japanese directors, Keisuke Kinoshita, Masaki Kobayashi, and Kon Ichikawa.

Release

Its commercial failure sent Kurosawa into a deep depression, and in 1971 he attempted suicide. Despite having slashed himself over 30 times with a razor, Kurosawa survived his suicide attempt; however, he would not return to filmmaking for five years, releasing Dersu Uzala in 1975.

Awards

The film won the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.

See also

• List of submissions to the 44th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Japanese submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

External links

• Dodes'ka-den at IMDb
• Dodesukaden (Japanese) at the Japanese Movie Database