Rating: 
Summary: Kurosawa classic
Review: A release date for this movie has finally been set. Coming this June, Criterion will release this movie as part of a 2-Disc box set. The other film in the box set will be Jean Renoir's version of the "Lower Depths". Yes, that Jean Renoir. The full specs on the DVD's are available on Criterion's website and/or the Home Vision Entertainment Website. This should be one of Criterion's best releases to date.
Rating:
Summary: Coming in June, 2004
Review: A release date for this movie has finally been set. Coming this June, Criterion will release this movie as part of a 2-Disc box set. The other film in the box set will be Jean Renoir's version of the "Lower Depths". Yes, that Jean Renoir. The full specs on the DVD's are available on Criterion's website and/or the Home Vision Entertainment Website. This should be one of Criterion's best releases to date.
Rating:
Summary: The Lower Depths: A Little Known Masterpiece
Review: Although not well known, this film shines as bright as any of Kurosawa's other works. The Lower Depths is the story of a group of people who all share the same living quarters in the slums of Japan. Everyone suffers greatly until a travelling old man comes and turns their world upside down. This film is spectacularly filmed. Most of the action takes place in a single room giving the viewer the sense of entrapment experienced by the individuals in the film. Mifune's appearence in this film is unparalled as the thief tortured by love and the hell of his existance. The Lower Depths is a film of great suffering and through this suffering finds the joy possible in the human heart. Often times Kurosawa is critisized by individuals for the light-hearted approach he takes to this film. However this light-nature is exactly what he was trying to show. This film is definitly worth checking out. This video will please film buffs as well as anyone familiar with the original Maxim Gorky play.
Rating: 
Summary: How low can Humans sink?
Review: As the title this is a film that shows a group of People gathered together in an Inn at Edo (tokyo).
They have one thing in common, that is that they all have reached the bottom of their life.
Akira Kurosawa have created a great atmosphere of Gorki`s play that you feel right away. We have many aspects of Humans shown and what poornes, depression and anxiety can drive them to do.
Kurosawa made a very dark and tense atmosphere in order to show the "lowest of the low" and to rip away anny hope of happyness. It`s a very "depressing" movie but it`s a lot of humour in it.
Rating:
Summary: Kurosawa classic
Review: Based on Gorky's play, set in Japan's Edo period, a group of what would be homeless people with little education, little hope of jobs, on the fringe of society, survive. Clearly delineated characters and ensemble acting give us insight into another place and time to open our horizons. Alcoholism, lack of adequate nutrition, cruel weather conditions, all contribute to the overwrought emotions of these societal-fringe humans.
Rating:
Summary: "Kindness is one thing. Debt is another ..."
Review: For those who are most familiar with Kurosawa's epics, "The Lower Depths" may seem shocking in its austerity - there are only two sets (interior and exterior of the doss-house where the action takes place), there's no background music at all, and the script is a faithful line-for-line rendition of Maxim Gorky's play (a sort of Chekhov of the slums) transposed from Russia to Japan. Before shooting started, Kurosawa rehearsed solidly for six weeks, with the actors on set in full costume and makeup and the cameras rolling but empty. The result is the most phenomenal piece of ensemble acting I have ever seen. Every part in the play (no matter how small) is acted with extraordinary detail, realism, and humour (the cast features many of the "Kurosawa group", including greats such as Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada and Minoru Chiaki), captured by sensitive, unobtrusive (but nonetheless stylish) cinematography. The play itself resonates with the themes that run throughout all Kurosawa's work - humanism, class, and the ability (or inability) of human beings to face the truth. Although the play is often seen as despairing, this rigorously unsentimental production also contains an extraordinary and utterly unexpected sense of spontaneity and joy. The result is funny, profound, and heartbreaking.
Rating:
Summary: "Kindness is one thing. Debt is another ..."
Review: For those who are most familiar with Kurosawa's epics, "The Lower Depths" may seem shocking in its austerity - there are only two sets (interior and exterior of the doss-house where the action takes place), there's no background music at all, and the script is a faithful line-for-line rendition of Maxim Gorky's play (a sort of Chekhov of the slums) transposed from Russia to Japan. Before shooting started, Kurosawa rehearsed solidly for six weeks, with the actors on set in full costume and makeup and the cameras rolling but empty. The result is the most phenomenal piece of ensemble acting I have ever seen. Every part in the play (no matter how small) is acted with extraordinary detail, realism, and humour (the cast features many of the "Kurosawa group", including greats such as Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada and Minoru Chiaki), captured by sensitive, unobtrusive (but nonetheless stylish) cinematography. The play itself resonates with the themes that run throughout all Kurosawa's work - humanism, class, and the ability (or inability) of human beings to face the truth. Although the play is often seen as despairing, this rigorously unsentimental production also contains an extraordinary and utterly unexpected sense of spontaneity and joy. The result is funny, profound, and heartbreaking.
Rating:
Summary: Renoir & Kurosawa
Review: How can you go wrong with Renoir and Kurosawa? The Criterion Collection does its usual amazing work on this release. It combines two different looks at Gorky's play by two of the world's greatest filmmakers. The booklet is informative and well presented. The DVD itself features two very nice transfers -- the Renoir is especially nice considering the age of the original film. The only question for the buyer is do you place it next to Ikiru and Rashomon? or next to Rules of the Game and Grand Illusion? (Make sure you have all of them, of course.)
Rating:
Summary: Gritty and engrossing
Review: I just saw the Lower Depths for the first time, and I found it to be one of Kurosawa's best. The tale will not win popularity contests with Western audiences-- the characters are all flawed, sad, poverty-stricken. It doesn't end all neatly tied up with a bow. But there are hilarious comic moments, an intriguing pilgrim character (who actually takes the limelight from Mifune), and a tragic love story. All this with Kurosawa's infallible camera work.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste money on this!
Review: I usually enjoy all kind of movies. I like some of Kurosawa's films. Before I saw this movie, I was excited about it, because it's famous Kurosawa's movie! However, just 30 minutes later I felt this movie was so boring and also acting was so bad. Especially, Mifune, I really couldn't understand what he was saying. Speak clearly!! Also the other actors aren't that good either. The story isn't so impressive or entertaining at all, you'll just get depressed by watching this movie. Don't waste your money on this, it doesn't mean all Kurosawa's films are great! This is a really weak film of his.
| 
