Why Not?
- Released on
- Runtime
- 151 mins
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.
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.
Cast
- Shigeru Izumiya
- Kaori Momoi
- Masao Kusakari
- Ken Ogata
- Norihei Miki
- Junzaburō Ban
- Mitsuko Baisho
- Shigeru Tsuyuguchi
- Ако
- Shōhei Hino
- Shino Ikenami
- Etsuko Ikuta
- Hiroshi Inuzuka
- Chōichirō Kawarasaki
- Kazuo Kitamura
- Nenji Kobayashi
- Yasuaki Kurata
- Shoichi Ozawa
- Sanshō Shinsui
- Kazuko Shirakawa
- Yuko Tanaka
- Kibaji Tankobo
- Minori Terada
- Taiji Tonoyama
Director
- Shōhei Imamura
Producers
- Shōhei Imamura
- Shoichi Ozawa
- Jirô Tomoda
- Shigemi Sugisaki
Screenwriter
- Ken Miyamoto
- Shōhei Imamura
