Dodes'ka-den
| Dodes'ka-den | |
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| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Written by |
Akira Kurosawa Hideo Oguni Shinobu Hashimoto |
| Starring |
Yoshitaka Zushi Kin Sugai Toshiyuki Tonomura |
| Music by | Tōru Takemitsu |
| Cinematography | Yasumichi Fukuzawa Takao Saitô |
| Edited by | Reiko Kaneko |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Toho |
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Release date
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Running time
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140 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Dodes'ka-den (どですかでん Dodesukaden?, nonce word equivalent to "Clickety-clack") is a 1970 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, based on a book by Shūgorō Yamamoto. It was Kurosawa's first film in color.
The film title "Dodeska-den" are the playacting "words" uttered by the boy character to mimick the sound of his imaginary tram (trolley car) in motion. It is not a real onomatopoeic word in the Japanese vocabulary, but was invented by author Shūgorō Yamamoto in Kisetsu no nai machi ("A Town Without Seasons"), the original story on which the film was based.
In standard Japanese language, this sound would be described as gatan goton, equivalent to "clickity-clack" in English.
The film focuses on the lives of a variety of characters who happen to live in a suburbial shantytown atop a rubbish dump. The first to be introduced is the boy Roku-chan, who lives in a fantasy world in which he is a tram (trolley) conductor. He is both the tram and the tram driver and follows a set route and schedule through the dump, reciting the refrain "Dodeska-den", mimicking the sound of his vehicle.
His dedication to the fantasy is fanatical. Roku-chan is called "trolley fool" (or "tram freak"; densha baka) by locals and by children who are outsiders. Whether Roku-chan is genuinely mentally-challenged, is a point left ambiguous by the film; he has been emphatically diagnosed otherwise in the original novel. Still, Roku-chan has earned the label in several cinematographic writings.
Ryotaro, a hairbrush maker by trade, is saddled with supporting many children whom his unfaithful wife Misao has conceived in different adulterous affairs, but is wholeheartedly devoted to them.
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Wikipedia