Akira Kurosawa: Every Movie Ranked Worst To Best

Dodes'ka-den was Kurosawa's first colour film, a change in style that allowed him to connect with the painter within and form some of his most luminous imagery, in spite of the script's incompatible stream-of-consciousness structure.

Made as a movie anthology about a group of beggars living in a rubbish dump, the drama features some stirring musings on life and the power of hope, but struggles to balance its themes with appropriate focus.

Though contemporary reviews of Dodes'ka-den are more positive than when the film was released, its initial reception caused Kurosawa to attempt suicide and despair over his career. After this, his films would become fewer and far between.