Eijanaika (film)

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Eijanaika / Why Not?
DVD cover for Eijanaika (1981)
Directed by	Shohei Imamura
Produced by	Shohei Imamura Shoichi Ozawa Shigemi Sugisaki Jiro Tomoda
Written by	Hisashi Yamauchi
Starring	Kaori Momoi Shigeru Izumiya Ken Ogata Shigeru Tsuyuguchi Masao Kusakari Yûko Tanaka Mitsuko Baisho
Music by	Shinichirô Ikebe
Cinematography	Sinsaku Himeda (as Masahisa Himeda)
Editing by	Keiichi Uraoka
Distributed by	Imamura Productions, Shochiku Films Ltd., Beverly Pictures (USA)
Release date(s)	March 14, 1981 (Japan); January 8, 1981 (USA)
Running time	151 min.
Language	Japanese
IMDb profile

Eijanaika or Why Not? (ええじゃないか , Ee ja nai ka^?) is a 1981 Japanese film by director Shohei Imamura.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ee ja nai ka" ("ain't it great?!") 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 Kokyo, 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.