This is the purpose of the picture, to make one suffer and sympathize with them. Kurosawa's darkly imagistic technique achieves this depressing aim.

[The Lower Depths] falls short of his other Mifune successes, ie: Rashomon, Seven Samurais. Nonetheless, it is Kurosawa through and through, and if you are one of his ardent public, you will want to include this on the list of "have seens."

Bleak comedy about a virtual flophouse in Edo-period Japan based on Gorky's play. Top-flight ensemble performance.

For the first hour and fifteen minutes of the movie, we make only limited excursions out of the tenement, and it begins to feel as though we've moved in ourselves. Kurosawa may have intended this, but it doesn't make for very satisfying viewing.