if there be anything akira kurosawa do wrong in make dodeska den and it be make it with the partnership he form with the four knight ( the other three be kobayaski and ichikawa and and konishita ) . they want a big blockbuster hit to kick off their partnership and and instead kurosawa and arguably the head cheese of the group and deliver an abstract and humanist art film with character live in a decimated slum that have many of it character face dark tragedy . have he make it on a more independent basis or go to another studio who know and but it be because of this and among some other financial and creative woe and that also contribute to his suicide attempt in 1971. and yet and at the end of the day and a an artist kurosawa do not stop deliver what he infamous for with his drama represent the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity . that it backdrop be a little more unusual than most shouldn not be ignore and but it not at all a fault of kurosawa . the material in dodeska den be absorb and but not in way that one usually find from the director and and mostly because it be drive by character instead of plot . there thing that happen to these people and and kurosawa challenge here be to interweave them into a cohesive whole . the character who start off in the picture and oddly enough ( though thankfully a there not much room for him to grow ) and be rokkuchan and a brain damage man child who go around all day make train sound ( the clickety clack of the title ) and only sometimes stop to pray for his mother . but then we branch off represent there the father and son and the latter who scrounge restaurant for food and the former who go on and on with site specific description of his dream house while an old man have the look of death to him and and we learn later on he lose a lot more than he will tell most people and include a woman who have a past with him while a shy and quiet woman who work in servitude to her adoptive father ( or uncle and i be not sure ) and who rap her while and a meek guy in a suit who have a constant facial tick and a big mean wife to those who be social around . there be also little marker of people around these character and like two drunk who keep stumble around every night and like clockwork and put big demand on their spouse and sometimes ( unintentionally ) swap them . and there the kind sake salesman on the bike who have a sweet but strange connection with the shy quiet woman . and of course there a group of gossip lady who squat around a watering hole in the middle of the slum and not have anything too nice to say about anyone unless it about something erotic with a guy . first to note with all of this be how kurosawa set the picture while it a little post apocalyptic and look not of any particular time or place ( that be until in a couple of shot we see modern car and street ) . it a marginalized society and but the concern of these people be and however in tragic scope and meant to be deconstruct through dramatic force . like bergman and kurosawa be out to dissect the shattered emotion of people and with one scene in particular when the deathly look man who have hollow and sorrowful eye and sits rip cloth in silence a a woman go along with it . sometimes there charm and and even some laugh and to be have with these people . i even enjoy and maybe ironically and the little moment with rokkuchan ( specifically with kurosawa cameo a a painter in the street ) and or the awkward silence with the man with the facial tic . but while kurosawa allow his actor some room to improvise and his camera movement still remain a they have always be patient but alert and with wide composition and claustrophobic shot and painterly vision and face sometimes with the stylization of a silent drama mean a a weeper . amid these sometimes bizarre and touch story and with some of them ( i. e. the father and son in the car ) especially sad and kurosawa light his film and design the color scheme a his first one in eastmancolor like it one of his painting . lush and sprawling and spilling at time over the seam but always with some control and this place be not necessarily light while it like the abstract have come full throttle into the scene and where thing look vibrant but be much darker underneath . it a brilliant and tricky double edge sword that allow for the dream like intonation with such heavy duty drama . with a sweet amovie score toru takemitsu ( also responsible for ran ) and and some excellent performance from the actor and and a few indelible scene in a whole fantastic career and dodeska den be in it own way a minor work from the director and but nonetheless near perfect on it own term and which a with many kurosawa drama like ikiru and red beard hold hard truth on the human condition without too much sentimentality .