The Lower Depths (Donzoko) (Directors Suite) (1957)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Freda Freiberg Gallery-(1:05) Trailer-An Autumn Afternoon; Tokyo Story Trailer-The Quiet Duel; Dolls Biographies-Crew-Kurosawa Filmographies-Crew-Kurosawa
Rating
Year Of Production	1957
Running Time	124:04
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (68:06)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Akira Kurosawa
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Toshirô Mifune Isuzu Yamada Kyôko Kagawa Ganjiro Nakamura Minoru Chiaki Kamatari Fujiwara Akemi Negishi Nijiko Kiyokawa Koji Mitsui Eijirô Tono Haruo Tanaka Eiko Miyoshi Bokuzen Hidari
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Masaru Satô

    Produced in 1956, Akira Kurosawa's The Lower Depths (Donzoko) transposed the original Russian play of the same name by Maksim Gorky into a cramped shack in a Japanese slum, situated in a rubbish tip below ground level. The story follows the interactions of a contrasting array of colourful characters as they argue, drink, fight, gamble and squander their lives away with no thought for their future. The main ensemble of characters include:

• Sutekichi (Toshiro Mifune), a thief who wants to make a go at an honest living, but only if it means he can snare the woman of his dreams.
• Rokubei and his wife Osugi are the unhappily married landlords of the buildings where these characters reside. Osugi is a poison-tongued, unsympathetic, manipulative woman who wants to start a new life and will do anything to get there.
• Danjuro is a drunken former actor whose only dream is of a rehab center for alcoholics in a far off mountain escape.
• Tanekichi, a tinkerer by trade, has a wife who is gravely ill, suffering terribly and very near her end. He is extremely selfish and does nothing to make her final days comfortable.
• Osen is a beautiful prostitute whose only respite in life lies in tears, as she is taunted by those around her.
• Okayo is the beautiful, younger sister of Osugi and the recent object of Sutekuchi's affections. Osugi is extremely jealous of their affair.
• Unokichi is a lunatic clog-smith, fresh out of jail. He's responsible for spreading rumors about the landlady's affairs and has been banished from their hovel, but that doesn't stop him from dropping by every now and then.
• Shimazo is the no-hoper uncle of sisters Okayo and Osugi. He pops by to gamble with the men and interfere in the affairs of his nieces.
• Otaki is Shimazo's unsympathetic wife who only takes an interest in his life when there's money to be made.

    The hum-drum lives of these undesirables is inescapably altered when Okayo brings home an old priest to stay for a few nights. We follow the assorted goings-on in the slum through this priest's stunned eyes, as characters are introduced, people are cheated and secret conversations are overheard. Every single one of the residents longs to escape in some form or another, but none have the will or determination to take the plunge. It seems the only way out of their big hole in the ground is via death, which of course leads to another hole in the ground, six feet under. Can the priest's brief influence help them move forward and escape the inevitable?

    This is pure Kurosawa, stylishly Directed with superb performances. It doesn't quite reach the grandiose heights of Throne of Blood, which was made prior to this film, but the Director's style permeates every scene, which makes it easy to recommend.

Video

    This video transfer is an NTSC conversion, with a similar runtime to the Region 1 equivalent. Because of this conversion process, movement on screen is ghosted and lacks fluidity. Video frames have been corrupted and appear doubled.

    The film is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1, full frame. The image is tight to the edges of the frame and there is no image distortion present. I compared our image closely with captures of the Region 1 Criterion transfer and the two appear almost identical. Ours is slightly softer and has been brightened considerably, to the point where the white opening titles disappear into the pale background. The framing of the transfers is absolutely identical.

    Contrast varies a bit, but doesn't present any major issues. Because the image is so bright, we never really see anything darker than pale grays.

    I didn't notice any dire MPEG compression issues, but film artefacts are unavoidable. Telecine wobble is always present and varies in severity. Source damage, marks, dirt and scratches are visible throughout. I also noted some moments of extreme film grain.

    An English subtitle stream is activated by default and is comprised of a white font with a thin black outline. The text is easy to read, although there are some Americanisms present.

    This disc is dual layered, with a transition placed during the feature at 68:06. This is a relatively quiet moment mid-scene.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two soundtracks, one of which is a brief Audio Commentary. The default audio stream is the film's original mono Japanese audio, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s).

    This soundtrack fares slightly better than the video presentation, and it shows its age. There is mild hiss present throughout, crackling and popping. I also noted a few dropouts here and there.

    The dialogue is generally easy to follow and I didn't have any troubles recognising who was speaking. Audio sync is not too bad, but does waver at times.

    The score by Masaru Satô is traditional, percussive and very simple. It's clear that the score is imitating the kind of accompaniment one might hear at a Japanese theater.

    There is obviously no subwoofer or surround activity to report.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Audio Commentary- Freda Freiberg

    This is a typically academic style of commentary; a person at a microphone reading awkwardly from their notes in monotone. The actual commentary really only amounts to a brief piece in the film's introduction, and again at the conclusion. Freda discusses Kurosawa's adaptation of Gorky's text and the devices he has employed as a director.

Gallery (1:05)

    Simply pans and zooms across a handful of stills taken from the film. The audio accompaniment is the same as the main menu.

Madman Trailers (4)

    These are preceded by the obligatory anti-piracy advert. Trailers are included for Directors Suite titles An Autumn Afternoon, Tokyo Story, The Quiet Duel and Takeshi Kitano's Dolls.

Biography & Filmography- Akira Kurosawa

    The reverse side of the cover slick contains some text; a biography and filmography of our Director.

• Audio Commentary by Donald Ritchie.
• Making-of Documentary - It is Wonderful to Create (33:00)
• Cast biographies by Stephen Prince.
• Theatrical Trailer.
• A Booklet with essays by Keiko McDonald and Thomas Rimer.

    In comparing the transfers, the framing of the image is absolutely identical, probably sourced from the same Toho master. Ours has been slightly boosted in brightness, while the Criterion is noticeably sharper. Being a native NTSC transfer, the Criterion would also be void of any format conversion artefacts, corrupt frames and the like that plague our transfer. The Region 1 is the obvious choice for fans of the film.

    The transfer is an NTSC conversion, and the source material shows its age.

    The extras don't amount to much.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall