It looks like an amiable comedy set in Tokyo's Yoshiwara district, where saki shop Setsuko Hara is worried about her brother, a wastrel who stole a samurai's knife when he put it down for a minute. There are amiable drunks, take monks, quarrels about nothing that are settled instantly when a woman has a cut finger, and Daisuke Katô in his first screen appearance. People keep throwing around big sums of money, treating 10 ryos like they're nothing, but the sums keep rising and the tempers begin to fray as the endless night that makes up this movie wears on.
I'm probably missing a lot of subtext. It's based on a kabuki play by Mokuami Kawatake, whose works I am absolutely unfamiliar with. However the comedy elements keep it chugging along.
I'm probably missing a lot of subtext. It's based on a kabuki play by Mokuami Kawatake, whose works I am absolutely unfamiliar with. However the comedy elements keep it chugging along.