The Lower Depths

In Kurosawa's The Lower Depths, a crowded boardinghouse on the edge of urban life in late 19th century Japan hosts a ragtag cast of tenants who drift through poverty, illusion, and small desires. An aging actor, a cunning thief named Sutekichi, his landlady Osugi, and her sister Okayo share a fragile bunch whose lives intertwine in a tense web of attraction and suspicion. Sutekichi begins secretly courting Osugi while also pursuing Okayo, testing loyalty and crossing lines between love and risk. Osugi, both distrustful and desperate, confronts the consequences of betrayal when she discovers her lover's interest in the younger woman. Her response threatens to explode the fragile balance of power within the house.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa, this 1957 adaptation of Gorky's Lower Depths features Toshirō Mifune and Isuzu Yamada in centerpiece roles, with a screenplay by Hideo Oguni, and it arrived amid Kurosawa's growing international acclaim.

Though darker and more intimate than many Kurosawa dramas, the film helped crystallize his approach to social realism, showing battered lives with moral ambiguity rather than heroes. Mifune's sly, dangerous Sutekichi and Isuzu Yamada's forceful Osugi have influenced later performances and ongoing debates about class and power in cinema.

Critics praised the film for its spare yet humane portrayal of those on the margins and for its restrained, devastating mood. The drama probes desire, social exploitation, and the fragile code of trust that sustains a community under strain.