Eijanaika

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.

• 
  Shigeru Izumiya

  Genji
• 
  Kaori Momoi

  Ine
• 
  Masao Kusakari

  Itoman
• 
  Ken Ogata

  Furukawa
• 
  Norihei Miki

  Masuya
• 
  Junzaburō Ban

  Toramatsu
• 
  Mitsuko Baisho

  Oko
• 
  Shigeru Tsuyuguchi

  Kinzo
• 
  Ако

  Oyoshi
• 
  Shōhei Hino

  Magoshichi