by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Isusu Yamada plays a pretty Japanese tea seller who befriends widowed laborer Toshiro Mifune. Before either party knows what has happened, the two have fallen in love. Celebrating their impending marriage, the couple spend a wonderful evening in downtown Tokyo, accompanied by the tea seller's young son (Harunori Kametani). Perhaps it is best that none of the participants in this nocturnal excursion are aware that tragedy looms just around the corner. Running a brief 59 minutes, Down Town is not so much a feature film as a profoundly moving tone poem.
