Dodes'ka-den (1970)

Dodes'ka-den might not be Kurasawa's most famous film. The story features no samurais and it isn't the blueprint for an American Western movie either. Kurasawa is a good observer of modern Japan. The film is set in the slum. A young man ("the train fool") impersonates a train. A woman cheats on her husband. A poor man tells stories about luxury to his son while making him beg for food from the local restaurants. Two buddies indulge in after-work drinking binges to the nuissance of their wives. Dodes'ka-den was kurasawa's first color movie. And colors are actually one important element of what makes this film stand out. Depicting a landscape consisting of garbage and ash heap using vivid colors & naivistic drawings lends the film a flavor of cruel fairy-tale. This is, largely, a film about escapism & imagination. One might complain that some scenes (the one-dimensional drunken patriarch) are too schematic. But it is a rather likeable film all the same; just look how it takes time to ruminate on repetition, everyday routines & actions (the train impersonation, pouring of drinks, gossip).