Film Forum

ええじゃないか

Director Shôhei Imamura
Cast Shigeru Izumiya, Kaori Momoi, Ken Ogata
Screenplay Shôhei Imamura, Ken Miyamoto | Cinematography Shinsaku Himeda
1981 | Japan | 35mm print courtesy The Japan Foundation Film Library | approx. 151 min. | In Japanese with English subtitles

As the Shogunate crumbles in the 1860s, crowds surge intermittently through the cities, singing, dancing, and chanting “Eijanaika!” (Why Not?); among them, now-bilingual farmer Shigeru Izumiya back from six years in the US after a mid-ocean rescue, desperately searching for his wife… and ex-samurai dropout Ken Ogata already there. Imamura’s only period work and his biggest spectacle.

EIJANAIKA © 1981 Shochiku Co., Ltd./IMAMURA PRODUCTIONS.

Reviews

“A superb-looking period piece charged with fevered eroticism and black humor.”
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice