By turns Akira Kurosawa's film follows the everyday lives of a group of people barely scratching at a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate because their situation are, all these both the homeless father and son. The woman abused by her uncle. The boy that imagines himself a trolley conductor--finds grounds to carry on. The memorable Dodes'ka-den was made at a tumultuous moment in Kurosawa's entire life span. And all artistic fire, fears, and his hopes are on fervent display his gloriously shot first color picture, in this.