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
