Reviews (38)

One of the greatest fims of all time.
This film is so utterly magnificent, it's on eof the greatest films of all time. It has the most gorgeous art work, dream-like visuals, color photography I've ever seen in film. This is based on tales by Lafcadio Hearn. A bizzare, eerie and horrifying musical score by Toru Takemitsu works exellently with the beautiful visuals. This video also has a gorgeous color Cinemascope widescreen presentation. The first tale Black Hair, is a bit slow, but's it's so worth it in the unbelievable horror climax. The second tale, Woman in the Snow, is one of the best and most beautiful in the whole film. Masaki Kobayashi uses just all white during the blizzard sequinces with some blood reds, lush greens, dream like blues, and odd purples. The third story, Hoichi, the Earless, begins with one of the most beautiful scenes in the film. An epic sea battle between the Heikie and Genji clans. This scene feautures all kinds of bizzare and beautiful colors including a firey red sky. The rest of the film concerns a young blind man's horrifying ordeal with ghosts. I can see some references to this segment in Akira Kurosawa's Ran. The final segment is called In a Cup of Tea and is the weakest. It's too short, and too fast moving. It does feature lots of gorgeous visuals to make up for it. I recommend this film to anyone, if you haven't seen this film. CLICK BUY RIGHT NOW!

The Greatest "Art House" Horror Film
"Kwaidan" is a cinematic masterpiece of the horror genre which, unfortunately, is not nearly as well known to genre fans as it should be. In my view it ranks with Werner Herzog's 1979 re-make of "Nosferatu" as the finest horror film ever made in color. Part of the reason for "Kwaidan"'s obscurity is its national origin (though, strangely enough, the Japanese folktales which form its basis were written by an American expatriate, Lafcadio Hearn). Yet even in Japan, the film was a commercial flop, despite superlatives from critics. More likely, the obscurity of "Kwaidan" derives from its artistry; viewers who come to it for the first time will probably be only marginally aware that they're seeing horror at all. Search in vain for gore and special effects; the film almost recalls Val Lewton's old classics in its reliance on suggestion. As an anthology, moreover, "Kwaidan" is in the same league as the 1946 British film, "Dead of Night," except that it has no over-arching "frame" device to tie the stories together. All four films which make it up are essentially revenge plots: simple and straightforward, like most folktales, though I would like to mention a personal favorite: "Yuki-Onna," whose surrealist account of a female vampire awed me with its weird snow-scapes and eerie soundtrack. By all means, see "Kwaidan" if you have any curiosity at all about horror as viewed through the lens of an artistic master; I only wish American directors had a comparable interest in quality.

Masterful work!
Anthology of ghost stories adapted from Lafcadio Hearn , American writer who lived in Japan .
Visually stunning.
The third chapter is the best. It turns around a poet who must create a epic poem about an ancient battle dictated for the leader of this dead regiment, killed in action, who emerges from the ashes to find out someone who reminds always the echoes of that bloody combat.
Extraordinary!

Ok, I always get sucked into these ghost stories
Lesson 1, always look at the date of the movie and then read the premise. I always read the premise, get the movie and then once it's in, realize that it's more of a Sinbad Saturday Afternoon movie then the Sixth Sense. The last story was cool about the boy who is on the cover but the rest are boring.
Rent-Maybe
Buy-No

Four Japanese Ghost Stories
Kwaidan, though it has some flaws in regard to pacing (it moves just too slowly sometimes) is a visually striking, very colorful film that is a pleasure to look at. This print is crystal clear and very sharp; Criterion usually does a good job in that sense.
Surprisingly, these traditional Japanese ghost tales very much resemble the classic English ghost stories of writers like J.S. Le Fanu or M.R. James--more subtlety, less bombast, working by suggestion and atmosphere. Don't expect a whiz-bang, fast-paced film with a lot of shocks. It's a slow, quiet film.
In my opinion, the two best stories are the first two, "The Black Hair" (reminiscent of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily") and "The Woman in the Snow" (something like Algernon Blackwood's "The Wendigo"). ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Criterion's two-disc double bill of The Lower Depths provides a scintillating lesson in comparative cinema. When Jean Renoir adapted Maxim Gorky's acclaimed 1902 play in 1936, he changed the setting from Czarist Russia to an unspecified French slum, casting the great Jean Gabin as a thief struggling to rise from his misery, and Louis Jouvet as the benevolent Baron, a flat-broke gambler on a downward social spiral. Renoir altered the play considerably, retaining its serious tone while infusing it with his trademark warmth and humanity. Two decades later, Kurosawa remained faithful to Gorky while daring to craft The Lower Depths as a comedy, in which Edo-period peasants (including Toshiro Mifune, in Gabin's role) concoct lavish illusions to ease the burden of their impoverished reality. While both films remained relatively overlooked during the careers of their creators, Criterion's DVD restores them to the prominence they deserve.

Both films have been meticulously restored and remastered to Criterion's high standards; Renoir's film still shows its age, but it will never look or sound better than it does here, and Renoir provides an informative introduction culled from the same archival materials featured on Criterion's The Rules of the Game DVD. Better yet, Kurosawa's film is accompanied by a superb commentary by peerless Japanese film scholar Donald Richie, who provides a feature-length treasury of anecdotes (he had actually visited Kurosawa's set in 1957), thematic analysis, production history, and scholarly insight. A 33-minute excerpt from the Japanese TV series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create offers rare interview clips with Kurosawa and surviving members of his cast, along with script, art design, and storyboard details to illustrate Kurosawa's creative process. Kurosawa expert Stephen Prince profiles the esteemed cast of the 1957 film, and exclusive essays about both films are included in the accompanying booklet. As a kind of Rorschach test for each director's approach to style and theme, The Lower Depths offers a back-to-back master class in the art of adaptation. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Kurosawa at his best
This adaptation of Gorky's play "the Lower Depths" by the master director Akira Kurosawa is quite a labyrinth. Each player has a path to follow, a fate that binds. Just as the dying woman is inexorably bound towards death, the tinker, thief, geisha, gambler, samurai, and pilgrim all are caught in a chillingly hopeless web of life and death. Outwardly we see the bottom dwellers, society's dregs from post feudal Japan. Yet the poverty of the individuals is really a portrayal of the poverty of the spirit of Modern Life. The lack of connection to spirit condemns them and us to a life and death of mindless work, escapist illusion, apathetic indifference to other's suffering, and the selfishness and hopelessness of the narcissist.

Kurosawa's adaptation of Gorky's "the Lower Depths" is brilliant. Kurosawa used the same group of actors for most of his Toho era films. He insisted on the most incredible attention to detail in his sets and costumes. He required this from the actors as well. His invisible presence is everywhere in the film. He brought out the best in the actors, set designers, writers, and camera operators. The attention to detail from beginning to end is awe-inspiring. That the movie is in Japanese is both a blessing and a curse. Since few of us understand Japanese, many of the nuances of the language are lost on us and we are at the mercy of the translators. On the other hand, the separation of the emotional quality of the actors voices from the meaning of the words adds a depth to the play.

One could go into the different lives of the various characters, but this is best left to the viewer. Now that Kurosawa's movies are available on video tape and DVD, we can see them from a more personal level. Again this gain is offset by the loss of not seeing his movies on the big screen. Still I find a deeper understanding of Kurosawa emerges from the multiple viewings of his movies. Years ago when I saw his movies in the theaters, I bought a book on Kurosawa's movies. This helped me to see more into the depths of Kurosawa's psyche, but now that I can view his master works more carefully I get a better understanding and deeper appreciation of these great works of art.

The Lower Depths: A Little Known Masterpiece
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.

Two Terrific Adaptations of Gorky's Lower Depths...
LOWER DEPTHS (1936) by Jeam Renoir

Lower Depths is an intricate story of poverty and those who fall into the deepest of socioeconomic despair based on the writer Maxim Gorky's play with the same name. The story takes place in the outskirts of Paris in a poorhouse where Pépel (Jean Gabin), a thief, is planning a raiding. Pépel is having an affair, which he tries to break off, with Vassilissa (Suzy Prim), the proprietor's wife, as he has come to realize that he loves Natacha (Junie Astor), Vassilissa's sister. This provides much intrigue as Vassilissa wants her husband dead because she wants to leave the poorhouse.

Gambling has driven the Baron (Louis Jouvet) to poverty and he has lost his administrative position at the ministry due to theft to cover for his gambling debts. When the Baron arrives home suicidal from one last disastrous gamble he searches for his gun in desperation. Instead the Baron discovers that he has a guest, Pépel, with whom the Baron builds a friendship as they spend the night chatting and playing cards. During the night Pépel finds out that creditors are about to repossess the Baron's mansion and the Baron is only a night away from same living conditions as Pépel.

The majority of the story takes place at the poorhouse where a number of interesting characters provide much insight into how people end up in the lower depths of society. Renoir's adaptation of the Lower Depths was thoroughly appreciated by Gorky as Renoir concentrated on how people shift social class either up or down. This focus is enhanced by the cast with the exception of Junie Astor whose face remains as motionless as a dusty bust when she is in focus of the camera. Renoir's Lower Depths offers a terrific cinematic experience that leaves the audience with notions of social injustice and blissful love.

LOWER DEPTHS (1957) by Akira Kurosawa

When Akira Kurosawa decided to adapt Gorky's Lower Depths to the silver screen he had already seen Jean Renoir's version of the film. Renoir was a film director whose cinematic genius Kurosawa genuinely admired as he later wrote in regards to Renoir, "...I would like to grow old in the same way he did." Kurosawa's direction of Lower Depth has the same intricate story of poverty and those who have fallen into the deepest of socioeconomic despair as Renoir's adaptation. However, unlike Renoir, Kurosawa grabs the cinematic moment in the initial scene where he pans the camera 360 degrees from within a massive hole displaying the upper edge of the abyss. This leaves a visual imprint in the mind which haunts the audience with the dread of falling into the abyss, which Renoir did not accomplish in his film as it had a different motive to tell the story.

The story takes place in a poorhouse that lays in the bottom of the large hole, which is confused by people of high social status as a garbage dump. In the poorhouse there are a number of different characters such as Sutekichi the thief (Toshirô Mifune), Osugi the landlady, Okayo Osugi's sister, Rokubei Osugi's older husband, a former samurai, a prostitute, a craftsman, an actor, a priest, and a gambler among others. They complain about their struggles, get drunk, sing, gamble, and share their hopes as they share a roof together. Through their daily activities the character's different persona's emerge as they tell stories of their past, or dreams that they have to be above the pit in which they now live.

Kurosawa's Lower Depths never leaves the pit in which the poorhouse exists as it instills an enhanced feeling of hopelessness, which lends support to the empathy that the audience builds for the desperation that the characters must feel. This desperate atmosphere is well-balanced by the priest that arrives to the poorhouse as he offers hope for those in need of it. The function of desperation and hope becomes a double edge sword that could inflict harm to those who use the two without care. Through Kurosawa's cinematic brilliance, desperation and hope are visualized and leave the audience with an excellent cinematic experience, which stimulates reflection in regards to the theme.

CRITERION --
does a wonderful job putting both of these cinematic geniuses in the same dvd case as both films are excellent in their own way. In addition, Criterion submits both with interesting extras that will enlighten the audience of both adaptations of Gorky's play. This in an essential piece of cinema that is a must for anyone who loves cinema.

Renoir & Kurosawa
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.)

Kurosawa classic
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. ... Read more

Description

Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family.From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend's obsession. Imamura's comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

a very young work
This is a film that shows the potential of Shohei Imamura, but im afraid it does not fulfill it. The film trys to hard to be arty:the jump cuts and "creative" camera movement serve only to confuse and alienate the viewer.

Imamura is a master film maker, and this isnt a horrible film, but if you want to see his best, get "the Eel" or "warm water under a red bridge"

Quaint and Silly.
There is a case for decrepit cinematic 'crud' being universal. This is it. Get Ozu's "Tokyo Story" instead (out on Criterion). That is a piece of timeless lyrical cinema. This film merely confirms that risque cinema quickly loses its potency (losing it in favour of a ephemeral revolutionary stance). A Waste.

More fun than I ever expected...
The Pornographers explores fetishism and unusual sexual arrangements with the bravado of a contemporary film designed to titillate the jaded bourgeoisie at Cannes, albeit with significantly less nudity. It's real, quirky, humorous, and it has a heart - in addition to dealing thoughtfully with the racy topics at hand. Even the choppily edited dream sequences seem to add to rather than detract from the overall experience.

An artful and engaging piece of cinema far ahead of its time.

NO SKIN FLICK
Love'em or hate 'em, idiosyncratic films that dabble with subversive notions and stories of fringe people make some viewers uncomfortable. You either get it or not. For those who do, there are rewards.

Shohei Imamura's THE PORNOGRAPHERS (Home Vision Entertainment) is about "public service" amateur porn filmmaker Subu. He supports and sleeps with landlady Haru, who thinks her disapproving dead husband has returned as a carp. But really, Sabu lusts after Haru's daughter. Voyeurism and incest is kinky comic fodder for Imamura, who said he's interested in "lower human society and the lower parts of the human body." Not for every taste, but way ahead of it's time. If you liked this one, see if you can find "Down and Dirty."

I did not get it
I had to watch this in a class. I thought this was one of the worst movies ever. The movie was over long. I guess i'm just a dumb college student but i did not get this movie at all. The weird camera work made the movie even more confuseing. Like the shot looking though a fish bowl. The move seems to be about and old pervert that likes to make porn and try to sleep with his girlfriends daughter. Then he becomes frustrated with women and trys to desgin the perfect doll, i got this part of the movie and it was down right discusting and i'm not a partically moral person. I hated every minute of this movie, don't waste your time or money its long borring and discusting. sorry for the misspellings and bad grammar ... Read more