is a 1981 Japanese film by director Shohei Imamura. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ee 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.
Cast
Kaori Momoi - Ine
Shigeru Izumiya - Genji
Shigeru Tsuyuguchi - Kinzo
Masao Kusakari - Itoman
Mitsuko Baisho - Oko
Yōhei Kōno - Hara Ichinoshin
Taiji Tonoyama
Junzaburō Ban - Toramatsu
Nenji Kobayashi - Matakichi
Hideo Takamatsu - Koide Yamato no Kami
Ako - Oyoshi
Kazuo Kitamura - Koide Yamatonokami
Jirō Yabuki - Senmatsu
Yasuaki Kurata - Tsukinoki Hanjirō
Hiroshi Inuzuka - Yamome no Roku
Shōhei Hino - Magohichi
Yūko Tanaka - Omatsu
Ken Ogata - Furukawa
Shoichi Ozawa - Sakunojo
Awards
Japanese Academy Awards 1982: Best Supporting Actress: Yūko Tanaka Newcomer of the Year: Yūko Tanaka Blue Ribbon Awards 1982: Best Supporting Actress: Yūko Tanaka Hochi Film Awards 1981: Best Supporting Actress: Yūko Tanaka Mainichi Film Concours 1982 : Best Sound Recording: Shotaro Yoshida