Eijanaika or Why Not? (ええじゃないか, Ee ja nai ka) is a 1981 Japanese film by director Shohei Imamura.[1] It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival.[2]
Eijanaika / Why Not? | |
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![]() DVD cover for Eijanaika (1981) | |
Directed by | Shohei Imamura |
Written by | Hisashi Yamauchi |
Produced by | Shohei Imamura Shoichi Ozawa Shigemi Sugisaki Jiro Tomoda |
Starring | Kaori Momoi Shigeru Izumiya Ken Ogata Shigeru Tsuyuguchi Masao Kusakari Yūko Tanaka Mitsuko Baisho Shōhei Hino |
Cinematography | Shinsaku Himeda (as Masahisa Himeda) |
Edited by | Keiichi Uraoka |
Music by | Shin’ichirō Ikebe |
Distributed by | Imamura Productions, Shochiku Films Ltd., Beverly Pictures (USA) |
Release dates | March 14, 1981 (Japan); January 8, 1981 (USA) |
Running time | 151 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
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.[3][4]
Films directed by Shōhei Imamura | |
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