Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate

Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (幕末太陽傳 or 幕末太陽伝, Bakumatsu taiyōden) is a 1957 black-and-white Japanese film comedy directed by Yuzo Kawashima with a screenplay by Kawashima, Shōhei Imamura and Keiichi Tanaka. It was voted the fifth best Japanese film of all time in a poll of 140 Japanese critics and filmmakers conducted by the magazine Kinema Junpo in 1999.

Contents

• Plot
• Cast
• References

Plot

It is set during the last days of the Shogunate. Saheiji (played by comedian Frankie Sakai) seeks to outwit the inhabitants of a brothel in order to survive in straitened times. A group of samurai meanwhile seek to destroy any foreigners that cross their path.

Cast

Frankie Sakai as Saheiji

Yōko Minamida as Koharu

Sachiko Hidari as Osome

Yujiro Ishihara as Takasugi Shinsaku

Nobuo Kaneko as Denbei, the owner of the Sagami-ya

Masumi Okada as Kisuke

Tomio Aoki as Chusuke

Shōichi Ozawa as Kinzō, the book lender

Izumi Ashizawa as Ohisa

Akira Nishimura as Shinkō

Taiji Tonoyama as Kurazō

Hideaki Nitani as Shidō Monta (a.k.a. Inoue Kaoru)

Akira Kobayashi as Kusaka Genzui