Eijanaika

Jan 8, 1981

2h 31m

★ 6.1

Overview

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.

Genres

Drama

Production Companies

Imamura Productions

Shochiku

Eijanaika Trailers

Cast

Genji

Shigeru Izumiya

Ine

Kaori Momoi

Itoman

Masao Kusakari

Furukawa

Ken Ogata

Masuya

Norihei Miki

Toramatsu

Junzaburō Ban

Oko

Mitsuko Baisho

Kinzo

Shigeru Tsuyuguchi

Oyoshi

Ако

Magoshichi

Shōhei Hino

Yoshino

Shino Ikenami

Nui

Etsuko Ikuta

In the last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, there was a cute warrior, Souji Okita, who belonged to the armed police of the shogunate in Kyoto. Very few knew that Souji was not a boy, but a woman. Souji loved the vice-leader of the armed police, Toshizou Hijikata. Souji suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis and coughed up blood during a battle. Toshizou helped her but said that he did not care for the girl with a smell of blood. Souji had a real talent for swordsmanship and no one but Ryouma Sakamoto could compete with her. Ryouma was a liberal intellectual and tried to carry out a revolution without blood. However, the bloody Meiji Restoration broke out and Souji killed Ryouma who lost his dream. Because a friendship had sprung up between Toshizou and Ryouma, Toshizou got angry and slashed at Souji with a sword. Unwillingly, she unsheathed her sword and thought that she might get love if she was killed by the man she loved.

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