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.
Shigeru Izumiya
as Genji
Kaori Momoi
as Ine
Masao Kusakari
as Itoman
Ken Ogata
as Furukawa
Norihei Miki
as Masuya
Junzaburō Ban
as Toramatsu
Mitsuko Baisho
as Oko
Shigeru Tsuyuguchi
as Kinzo
Ако
as Oyoshi
Shōhei Hino
as Magoshichi