#2254

Kurosawa “I wanted to show how people live by deceiving themselves.”

The Lower Depths (どん底, Donzoko) is a 1957 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, the screenplay by Hideo Oguni and Akira Kurosawa, based on the 1902 play The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky. The setting was changed for the film from late 19th-century Russia to Edo period Japan.

ENGLISH SUBTITLES

The film explores the Nietzschean theme that Buddhism (and religiousness in general) verges on nihilism by presenting two archetypal characters, the pilgrim and the gambler, who share a contentment that contrasts with the self-conscious existentialism  of the other characters. The pilgrim’s grace derives from believing that nothing on Earth matters because rewards are found in the afterlife; the gambler also believes nothing matters, but rather because he rejects religion and morality, seeking pleasure from life rather than purpose. Because both belief systems reject earthly matters and result in contentment, philosophers sometimes link Buddhism with nihilism; in Kurosawa’s plot arc, the nihilistic gambler succeeds in outlasting the pilgrim, whose promises are unfulfilled and result in a character’s suicide, which the gambler mocks. This fatalistic tone contrasts with Kurosawa’s more humanistic approach in other films, and is regarded as a reason for the film's mixed response upon its release in Japan. In addition, such overt representation of downtrodden, hopeless characters (albeit from a different era) was rare in early post-occupation Japan's popular media, which attempted to downplay allusions to an underclass struggling with societal changes wrought by the war and its aftermath.

One of the most magical moment of the film, as far as I am concerned is the dance at the end of the film, and Akira says about it "

“The dance at the end is not joy. It is the last refuge of people who have nothing else.” watch :

Why Kurosawa Made The Lower Depths (1957)

CLICK BELOW to LISTEN as YOU READ ALONG THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE ...

IMAGES

DONZOKO (1957) dir. Akira Kurosawa (SOURCE boydswan Aug 30, 2023)

Guardians can never be told what to do. Neither the omnipotent kind, nor the ordinary kind who raise kids in houses.

Makes sense to me. We've never played as Mom, Dad or Bro, and it would feel kind of weird to do so - they’re inscrutable by design, and giving them commands would break the spell a little. 

Looks like he's pondering over his next move in a game he is playing with some wicked troll girl down on the planet. Usually these matches are no contest, but she has been getting closer to beating him lately, and he has no idea how this is possible. Uncertainty, though rare, is quite a troubling sensation for the omniscient.

Or the semiscient, as the case may be. 

We may not be able to command Doc Scratch, but this still seems to be his PoV - which means his uncertainty isn’t feigned. Vriska really is hiding something from him. 

How were you able to contact me? Never mind, I figured it out instantly. [...] Occasionally I discover there are things I have not always known. It gives me the opportunity to make deductions, which are practically always flawless.

This short exchange gives us two pieces of valuable intel.

Scratch doesn’t know, in advance, what information is going to be withheld from him. He can’t use precognition to identify future mysteries, and must discover these mysteries through the normal passage of time. This is an important distinction, because it means he can be caught off guard. 

Scratch’s deductions are practically always flawless. If we take that statement and flip our perspective a little, we learn that his deductions are occasionally flawed.

These are two very exploitable weaknesses - provided he isn’t lying. If he is, this is very clever misdirection, and the perfect bait for Terezi.  

You asked your clever friend with the colourful spectacles to trace the source of my messages. He then established a relay for your messages to reach this source through some sort of computational proxy. I gather he has recovered from his implementation as a weapon in the sabotage of your mutual friend, whom you both believe to be dead. GC: OH MY GOD WH1T3 T3XT GUY! GC: SHUT UP! >:O

This reads as if Scratch was a little embarrassed. He had to commit the indignity of asking a question, and thus needs to assert how smart he is, proving he’s still the one in control. 

Also - it sounds like Sollux did know he was used against Aradia. Her ghost led him to believe that she’s still alive, but he must feel absolutely miserable about what he was forced to do.