The Lower Depths is a 1957 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, based on the play The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky. The film's setting was changed to Edo-period Japan. In a run-down Edo tenement, an elderly man and his bitter wife rent out rooms and beds to the poor. The tenants are gamblers, prostitutes, petty thieves and drunk layabouts, all struggling to survive. The landlady’s younger sister who helps the landlords with the maintenance of the place, brings in an old man and rents him a bed. Kahei quickly assumes the role of the mediator and grandfatherly figure, though... there is an air of mystery about him and some of the tenants suspect his past is not unblemished. Sutekichi, the thief and self-appointed tenement leader, is having an affair with Osugi the landlady, though he is gradually shifting his attention to her younger and sweet-tempered sister, Okayo. Okayo thinks little of him, however, which frustrates Sutekichi and sours his relationship with Osugi. Jealous and vengeful, Osugi conspires to seduce Sutekichi to murder her husband so she can turn him over to the authorities.
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