Tin craftsmen and their families in a downtown Tokyo are the focus of this splendid work depicting the plain appearance of various people who, though poor, do not lose their cheerfulness. A home drama of a softhearted father and level-headed mother interwoven with their carefree children, a humble sketch of stalwartness as they resist caving in to an oppressive gloom. The optimistic pureness is transformed to poetic sentiment through the modest character portrayal of the townpeople's strength. "Nakagawa really displays his talent for working with actors in this humanistic, warts-and-all portrayal of a family who subsist on hope. The widescreen black and white photography is worth noting, too. Much of the film takes place in the cramped hovels of the residents, broken up by exteriors that somehow find beauty in the misery and hardship – a potter's field funeral for a neighbor who succumbs to illness, Yoshigoro riding his bicycle out to work at dawn, and Masako running after her teacher's bus as she bids farewell. It wouldn't surprise me if Kurosawa Akira recalled Kaachan when shooting Dodes'kaden." Jason Gray
Production: Shintoho
World Sales: Kokusai Hoei
Screenplay: Tateoka Kennosuke, based on the novel by Toyoda Masako
Cinematographer: Hirano Yoshimi
Art Director: Kurosawa Haruyasu
Musik: Kinoshita Chuji Ton: Dogen Yuji
Editor: Goto Toshio
Cast: Ito Yunosuke, Mochizuki Yuko, Niki Terumi, Tsuzawa Akihide, Kitazawa Noriko, Hamano Keiko
Format, screen ratio: 35mm, 1:2.35, b/w
Running time: 88 minutes, 24 frames/sec.
Language: Japanese
Print Source: National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Foto: ©Kokusai Hoei
