Drama
The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ei ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.
Directed by
Shōhei Imamura
Yuko Tanaka
Omatsu
Kaori Momoi
Ine
Minori Terada
Ijuin
Ken Ogata
Furukawa
Yasuaki Kurata
Hanjiro
Mitsuko Baisho
Oko
Kazuko Shirakawa
Yamikumo-dayu
Nenji Kobayashi
Matakichi
Taiji Tonoyama
Jyosyuya
Norihei Miki
Masuya
Junzaburō Ban
Toramatsu
Masao Kusakari
Itoman
Shōhei Hino
Magoshichi
Shigeru Izumiya
Genji
Shigeru Tsuyuguchi
Kinzo
Kazuo Kitamura
Koide
Shoichi Ozawa
Sakunojo
Shino Ikenami
Yoshino
Chōichirō Kawarasaki
Nakazawa
Hiroshi Inuzuka
Roku
Ако
Oyoshi
Kibaji Tankobo
Gon
Etsuko Ikuta
Nui
Sanshō Shinsui
Densuke

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