The Lower Depths
(1957)
★ 7.1 IMDb · 145 votes
Genres: Drama
Year: 1957
Runtime: 125 мин
Country: Japan
Director: Акира Куросава
Cast: Тосиро Мифунэ, 山田五十鈴, 香川京子, 二代目 中村鴈治郎, Минору Тиаки, 藤原釜足, 根岸明美, 清川虹子, 三井弘次, 東野英治郎
Plot
Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi to romance her younger sister, Okayo, Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband.
In medieval Japan, aging Rokubei, his younger wife of four years Osugi and her uncle run a tenement complex at the bottom of a cliff, the complex which from the naked eye at the top of the cliff looks like nothing more than a rubbish heap. The tenants are a group of down-and-outers with some who operate on the far side of the law. Nonetheless, the tenants are close knit community in wallowing in their collective misery, those who care who know their lives will never get better as long as they stay there. The landlords have no compassion for the tenants, they mockingly only stating that the tenants will be given a favorable standing in a future life for any good deeds done around the tenement. The recent arrival of Kahei, a mysterious elderly man, affectionately referred to as Grandpa, who spins tales of the unknown, provides at least hope that there is a better life out there somewhere. Sutekichi, a thief who arguably is the leader among the tenants, and Osugi are carrying on an affair behind Rokubei's back. Although he has previously professed his love for her, the words were more an empty platitude. He begins to have feelings for Osugi's younger sister, Okaya, who works for her sister cleaning up the tenement under her watchful eye. Okaya does not know if she can trust the words of anyone who lives in the complex, while Osugi, who knows of Sutekichi feelings for Okaya, begins to have feelings of jealousy. Osugi and Sutekichi work toward their own goals at the expense of others within the complex.