# Dodes'ka-den (どですかでん)
**Dodes'ka-den** (どですかでん) is a 1970 Japanese drama directed by [Akira Kurosawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/akira-kurosawa), his first color film, portraying the interwoven lives of impoverished people in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. The title is an onomatopoeia for the sound of a trolley car, roughly "clickety-clack" in English, chanted by the boy Roku-chan as he conducts an imaginary tram through the shantytown each day.[1](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/883-dodes-ka-den) The film was made at a low point in Kurosawa's career, failed at the box office, and was followed by his suicide attempt, yet it is now regarded as a classic and was nominated for an Academy Award.[2](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-dodeska-den-1970-online) • [3](https://www.academymuseum.org/programs/detail/dodeska-den-in-35-mm-019c064f-e70e-6ad3-7b29-792300726641)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / year | Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1970[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d302989a-78dc-5651-ab66-aff1c13d2d07/dodeska-den) |
| Milestone | Kurosawa's first color film[1](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/883-dodes-ka-den) |
| Source | Shugoro Yamamoto's 1962 novel *Kisetsu no nai machi* (*A City Without Seasons*), his third Yamamoto adaptation after *Sanjuro* (1962) and *Red Beard* (1965)[5](https://www.royalbooks.com/images/upload/catalog-69.pdf) • [3](https://www.academymuseum.org/programs/detail/dodeska-den-in-35-mm-019c064f-e70e-6ad3-7b29-792300726641) |
| Production company | Yonki-no-kai (Club of the Four Knights), formed with directors Masaki Kobayashi, Kon Ichikawa, and Keisuke Kinoshita; the film was its first and only release[3](https://www.academymuseum.org/programs/detail/dodeska-den-in-35-mm-019c064f-e70e-6ad3-7b29-792300726641) |
| Running time | 140 minutes per BFI and the Harvard Film Archive; Criterion lists 144 minutes[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d302989a-78dc-5651-ab66-aff1c13d2d07/dodeska-den) • [6](https://www.criterion.com/films/1083-dodeska-den) |
| Format | Color, 1.33:1 standard-ratio 35mm rather than the anamorphic widescreen Kurosawa had used since *The Hidden Fortress* (1958)[6](https://www.criterion.com/films/1083-dodeska-den) • [7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1035-dodes-ka-den-true-colors%26lang%3Den) |
| Recognition | Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 44th Academy Awards[3](https://www.academymuseum.org/programs/detail/dodeska-den-in-35-mm-019c064f-e70e-6ad3-7b29-792300726641) |
## Spoilers
### Story and structure
The film has no central story or protagonist. It is a collection of episodes in the lives of a handful of characters living in a slum built on a rubbish tip: Rokuchan, a simpleminded boy who drives an imaginary trolley; two drunken day laborers and their wives; the kindly Ryo, tending his wife's many children; a beggar and his son, living and starving in the rusted hulk of an automobile; Katsuko, a young woman abused by a cruel uncle; Hei, a traumatized man living in solitude; and Tanba, a stately and wise village elder.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1035-dodes-ka-den-true-colors%26lang%3Den) The characters live among their fantasies: the homeless father and son build an imaginary dream house, a silent man is obsessed by the idea of his wife's infidelity, and Roku-chan repeats "dodes'ka-den, dodes'ka-den" as he runs his tram route, which provides the continuity linking the separate story threads.[8](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/dodeska-den-2000-01) • [1](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/883-dodes-ka-den)
Yamamoto's original work was a cycle of quite separate stories set in different periods; Kurosawa and his scenarists, Hideo Oguni and Shinobu Hashimoto, interwove them into an integrated, contemporary panorama.[9](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/kurosawa/2023/01/15/dodeskaden/) Kurosawa said that Rokuchan "symbolizes the artist, the cineaste who creates entirely by the power of his imagination, using as a means of communication the tramway, i.e. the cinema."[9](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/kurosawa/2023/01/15/dodeskaden/)
## Circumstances of production
**A career in crisis.** Kurosawa had spent two years embroiled in the ill-fated Hollywood production *Tora! Tora! Tora!*, from which Twentieth Century-Fox fired him amid a bitter dispute over schedule and cost. At home, the Japanese film industry was collapsing as television drew away the movie audience, and Kurosawa worried he might never direct again.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1035-dodes-ka-den-true-colors%26lang%3Den) *Dodes'ka-den* came five years after *Red Beard* (1965) and was the only film he completed in the decade between *Red Beard* and *Dersu Uzala* (1975).[10](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/36637/dodeska-den/)
He responded by forming the Club of the Four Knights with three other preeminent Japanese directors, [Masaki Kobayashi](https://www.edgepedia.org/masaki-kobayashi), Kon Ichikawa, and Keisuke Kinoshita, hoping their combined prestige would attract financing. *Dodes'ka-den* was the company's first and only production.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1035-dodes-ka-den-true-colors%26lang%3Den) Made on a low budget with financing put together by his friends, it was shot in about a month, an economy atypical for a director whose previous film had been in production for nearly two years.[1](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/883-dodes-ka-den) • [7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1035-dodes-ka-den-true-colors%26lang%3Den)
**Working methods.** Kurosawa eliminated rehearsals and asked actors to improvise, employed a "one scene, one cut" practice avoiding his trademark dissolves and wipes, and used zoom lenses for the first time.[11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/290067/dodes-ka-den) • [7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1035-dodes-ka-den-true-colors%26lang%3Den) He chose not to work in widescreen because he disliked how anamorphic lenses handled color information; spherical lenses gave the sharp, crisp color he wanted.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1035-dodes-ka-den-true-colors%26lang%3Den) He also cast an almost entirely new set of actors, breaking with [Toshiro Mifune](https://www.edgepedia.org/toshiro-mifune), the star who had personified his films, and with his regular composer Masaru Sato; the score was written by Toru Takemitsu.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1035-dodes-ka-den-true-colors%26lang%3Den) • [6](https://www.criterion.com/films/1083-dodeska-den) In preparation, he asked Japanese schoolchildren to send drawings of streetcars to cover Roku-chan's shack; the final pictures were inspired by more than 2,000 submissions.[11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/290067/dodes-ka-den)
## Color and visual style
The film was shot on a Tokyo dump, with outdoor sets built from debris collected on the site and dyed with spray guns in vivid pinks, golds, and greens that contrast with the characters' bleak lives.[11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/290067/dodes-ka-den) Kurosawa, who was also a painter, used color like a painter: the faces of the sick beggar and his child turn livid blues and greens, their dreams appear in wild Dayglo colors, and the houses of old petrol cans are multihued. He was fascinated by the colors rain produced from the chemically polluted soil of the dump, and when the real sun failed to shine he simply painted the shadows as he shot.[9](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/kurosawa/2023/01/15/dodeskaden/) His script supervisor Teruyo Nogami recalled that he told the crew to come to work in colorful clothes and painted the sets himself with a brush while an assistant held the paint box.[12](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1036)
[The 1](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-1).33:1 frame returned Kurosawa to the format of his films of the 1940s and early 1950s, producing compositions more intimate, contained, and static than his widescreen work.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1035-dodes-ka-den-true-colors%26lang%3Den)
## Reception and aftermath
The film was described by commentators as both a failure and a masterpiece.[11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/290067/dodes-ka-den) Its failure at the box office led to a period of ill health and depression for Kurosawa, followed by a suicide attempt about a year after the release; he was consequently unable to attend the 1971 Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals, where the film had its Australian premiere.[13](https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/david-stratton-akira-kurosawa/) • [11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/290067/dodes-ka-den) Kurosawa himself said in an interview that he had been "emotionally drained" when he directed it.[1](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/883-dodes-ka-den)
The film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, the tenth nomination for Japan in that category, and won a special prize at the Moscow International Film Festival along with awards at Adelaide and Belgrade.[3](https://www.academymuseum.org/programs/detail/dodeska-den-in-35-mm-019c064f-e70e-6ad3-7b29-792300726641) • [14](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/document/detail-work/385) The BFI Player describes it as "now rightfully regarded as a classic; Kurosawa's last poetic paean to post-war optimism."[2](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-dodeska-den-1970-online) Critics have also noted that the released film runs well under its reputed original length of 224 minutes, yet the large cast and variety of action remain coherent and balanced.[9](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/kurosawa/2023/01/15/dodeskaden/)
## Place in Kurosawa's career
*Dodes'ka-den* marked a decisive break from the hero narratives of Kurosawa's earlier work, which centered on a dominant leader, often played by Toshiro Mifune, against an epic backdrop; here his focus is on the weak and forgotten, with no force of deliverance at hand.[11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/290067/dodes-ka-den) It returns to the territory of *The Lower Depths* (1957), his adaptation of [Maxim Gorky](https://www.edgepedia.org/maxim-gorky)'s play, and that film clearly influenced the structure of the new scenario, though Kurosawa insisted on the difference that *Dodes'ka-den* is set in real, contemporary Japan.[9](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/kurosawa/2023/01/15/dodeskaden/) The critic Barbara Scharres wrote that its calm unfolding and almost childlike approach to human nature mark the beginning of the method that characterizes the films of Kurosawa's old age.[1](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/883-dodes-ka-den)
## References
1. [Barbara Scharres, "Dodes'ka-den," The Criterion Collection (1996)](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/883-dodes-ka-den)
2. [Dodes'Ka-Den, BFI Player](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-dodeska-den-1970-online)
3. [Dodes'ka-den in 35mm, Academy Museum](https://www.academymuseum.org/programs/detail/dodeska-den-in-35-mm-019c064f-e70e-6ad3-7b29-792300726641)
4. [DODES'KA-DEN (1970), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d302989a-78dc-5651-ab66-aff1c13d2d07/dodeska-den)
5. [Royal Books, Japanese Cinema catalog (script notes for Dodes'ka-Den)](https://www.royalbooks.com/images/upload/catalog-69.pdf)
6. [Dodes'ka-den (1970), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/1083-dodeska-den)
7. [Stephen Prince, "Dodes'ka-den: True Colors," The Criterion Collection (2009)](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1035-dodes-ka-den-true-colors%26lang%3Den)
8. [Dodes'ka-Den, Harvard Film Archive](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/dodeska-den-2000-01)
9. [Dodes'ka-den, BFI Southbank Programme Notes, including David Robinson, Monthly Film Bulletin, May 1975](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/kurosawa/2023/01/15/dodeskaden/)
10. [DVD Talk review of Dodes'ka-den](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/36637/dodeska-den/)
11. [Emily Soares, "Dodes'Ka-Den," Turner Classic Movies (2010)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/290067/dodes-ka-den)
12. ["Dodes'ka-den: A Conversation with Teruyo Nogami," The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1036)
13. [David Stratton on Akira Kurosawa, ACMI](https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/david-stratton-akira-kurosawa/)
14. [どですかでん, Musashino Art University Museum & Library image library database](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/document/detail-work/385)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1970s › Released 1970 to 1974*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license