Eijanaika (film) - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Eijanaika

Eijanaika or Why Not? (ええじゃないか, Ee ja nai ka) is a 1981 Japanese film by director Shohei Imamura. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival.

Cast

Kaori Momoi - Ine

Shigeru Izumiya - Genji

Ken Ogata - Furukawa

Shigeru Tsuyuguchi - Kinzo

Masao Kusakari - Itoman

Mitsuko Baisho

Taiji Tonoyama

Shôhei Hino

Yūko Tanaka - Omatsu

Nenji Kobayashi - Matakichi

Ako - Oyoshi

Plot

Eijanaika (film) Zato ne WHY NOT EIJANAIKA 1981 Film

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.