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Eijanaika

 Eijanaika
type
TVTItem
 Eijanaika
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Eijanaika
 Eijanaika
page
Eijanaika
 Eijanaika
comment
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Eijanaika ("Why not") is a 1981 film from Japan directed by Shohei Imamura.It is set at the very end of the Jidaigeki era, namely 1867. The Meiji Restoration is on the way but the characters, all lowlifes, pimps, whores and crooks in East Ryogoku, one of the scummier neighborhoods of Edo (aka Tokyo) don't know that. The story begins with Genji, the protagonist, coming back to Japan after six years in America, he having been rescued by an American ship after his ship sank. Genji picked up English during his time in the United States and hopes to take his wife, Ine, back to America where they can buy land to farm, as opposed to Japan where feudal lords own the land.He makes it back home only to discover that his father-in-law sold Ine into sex slavery. It was only a three-year term as a prostitute, but when Genji finds Ine again, she is working a bizarre one-woman sex show in which she spreads her legs for customers and they blow streamers at her private parts. It's degrading, but it's a living, and Ine doesn't relish either going to America or living a farmer's life.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })Other characters in the sprawling story include Itoman, who befriends Genji, and is on his own quest for revenge. Also in the story is Furukawa, once a samurai for the shogunate, now left adrift as the age of the samurai is passing. All this is taking place in the slums of Edo, a place that is getting out of control as the shogunate collapses, beset by occasional riots where desperate poor people raid the merchants for money, food, and clothing. It turns out that the riots are egged on by forces loyal to the emperor—but will the rioting backfire on them?
 Eijanaika
fetched
2023-02-09T04:27:21Z
 Eijanaika
parsed
2023-02-09T04:27:21Z
 Eijanaika
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DBTropes
 Eijanaika / int_18d15922
type
Title Drop
 Eijanaika / int_18d15922
comment
Title Drop: The rampaging mob storming through the neighborhood at the climax of the film sings a song, about all the crazy things that are happening in Japan (men can't get it up, women are looking for sex, no one knows who will win the civil war), with each verse ending with a cheer of "Eijanaika!" ("Why not," or "What the hell?")
 Eijanaika / int_18d15922
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 Eijanaika / int_259dc974
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The Freakshow
 Eijanaika / int_259dc974
comment
The Freakshow: The seamy East Ryogoku neighborhood is filled with bizarre sideshow attractions as if a circus has taken up permanent residence. One act shows a woman who appears to be able to extend her neck about six feet. Another features a man who can pop his eyes several inches out of his face.
 Eijanaika / int_259dc974
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 Eijanaika / int_3149c4b0
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It Will Never Catch On
 Eijanaika / int_3149c4b0
comment
It Will Never Catch On: Hana the shogunate reformer snorts with derision at the notion that the time of the samurai and the shogunate might be over, saying "a land of peasants and merchants only" would never work. It wound up working out quite well (until Japan blundered into war 70-odd years later anyway).
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 Eijanaika / int_3bf27a8d
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Right Through the Wall
 Eijanaika / int_3bf27a8d
comment
Right Through the Wall: Roku, who lives in the wooden house that shares a wall with Ine's and who has a crush on Ine, wakes up one morning and complains to the neighbors about how all the sex that Ine and a returned Genji were having kept him awake.
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 Eijanaika / int_4e3d253b
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Downer Ending
 Eijanaika / int_4e3d253b
comment
Downer Ending: Genji is killed in the climactic riot, along with a bunch of other people after the soldiers open fire. Furukawa has killed himself, joined in suicide by his girlfriend, as he faced arrest for the murder of Hara. Itoman is off for parts unknown, his vengeance completed. Ine is left a lonely widow who will probably have to go back to sex work.
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Too Important to Walk
 Eijanaika / int_5456f857
comment
Too Important to Walk: Katsuguro, one of the more important crime bosses in the neighborhood, is carried around on a palanquin.
 Eijanaika / int_5456f857
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 Eijanaika / int_5ce7dbb9
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Central Theme
 Eijanaika / int_5ce7dbb9
comment
Central Theme: The wrenching changes going on in Japanese society, with the end of the shogunate and the impending Meiji Restoration being the most obvious. It's barely a decade after Commodore Perry forcibly opened Japan to the West, and western influences are springing up everywhere. Ine briefly works at a whorehouse that caters to Americans, the shogun's forces buy surplus American rifles used in the American Civil War, and a restaurant that offers Western cuisine has sprung up in the neighborhood. Furukawa the samurai muses gloomily about how people like him are useless now, saying "The world will change, but I can't."
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 Eijanaika / int_82ab88c5
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Percussive Pickpocket
 Eijanaika / int_82ab88c5
comment
Percussive Pickpocket: How Genji loses his money almost as soon as he gets to the city. When he sees his pickpocket again, he chases him and gets the money back.
 Eijanaika / int_82ab88c5
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 Eijanaika / int_9b2923bc
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Mooning
 Eijanaika / int_9b2923bc
comment
Mooning: Some of the ladies in the rioting crowd temporarily disarm the soldiers, and lessen the tension, by mooning them and then peeing at them.
 Eijanaika / int_9b2923bc
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 Eijanaika / int_9d0bc885
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Eye Pop
 Eijanaika / int_9d0bc885
comment
Eye Pop: A rare live-action version. A sideshow act shows a man who seems to have the availability to project his eyeballs out of his head. Indeed he can project his eye stalks out so far that a bag can be hung on them.
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 Eijanaika / int_a1d48853
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Stupid Crooks
 Eijanaika / int_a1d48853
comment
Stupid Crooks: Genji and his buddies commit a robbery, dragging out a whole safe. Unfortunately they didn't think about how their rickety little boat isn't suited to transport a heavy iron safe, especially when they're being chased. The safe goes plunging into the river. There's a Running Gag after that in which the gang is occasionally setting off depth charges in the river and struggling to retrieve stuff from the safe.
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 Eijanaika / int_a8c50563
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Bathtub Scene
 Eijanaika / int_a8c50563
comment
Bathtub Scene: Combined with Fanservice Extra. Kinzo and Katsuguro are relaxing in a hot tub while they chat about business. Finally the chat is over, Katsuguro claps his hands, and three attractive naked ladies climb into the tub with them.
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 Eijanaika / int_bff666b
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Suicide Pact
 Eijanaika / int_bff666b
comment
Suicide Pact: Furukawa and his blind girlfriend Yoshino have one. When the cops close in and it's clear there's no escape, Furukawa kills her and then himself.
 Eijanaika / int_bff666b
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 Eijanaika / int_c93a6560
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Impaled with Extreme Prejudice
 Eijanaika / int_c93a6560
comment
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Furukawa's assassination of Hara. The sword goes clean through Hara's chest and out his back, poking through the back of his kimono.
 Eijanaika / int_c93a6560
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 Eijanaika / int_da12bcfb
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You Can't Go Home Again
 Eijanaika / int_da12bcfb
comment
You Can't Go Home Again: Genji makes it back to his rural home to find that his old house is now a crumbling ruin and his wife was sold into sex slavery.
 Eijanaika / int_da12bcfb
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 Eijanaika / int_dca97045
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Just Following Orders
 Eijanaika / int_dca97045
comment
Just Following Orders: Ijuin's only defense when a sword-wielding Itoman reminds Ijuin of how Ijuin killed Itoman's whole family. It doesn't work.
 Eijanaika / int_dca97045
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 Eijanaika / int_dceccabf
type
Cat Fight
 Eijanaika / int_dceccabf
comment
Cat Fight: Ine confronts another sex worker who is stealing her "Blow Girl" act. It turns into a hair-pulling cat fight which in theory might be fanservice-y since both the women are good looking and the other one is topless, but given the grim setting and the desperate characters it comes off as sad.
 Eijanaika / int_dceccabf
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 Eijanaika / int_e4b69188
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Very Loosely Based on a True Story
 Eijanaika / int_e4b69188
comment
Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The "Eijanaka" riot/carnival/party that climaxes the film was a real thing that happened all over Japan in this era, as the shogunate was crumbling and order was breaking down.
 Eijanaika / int_e4b69188
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 Eijanaika / int_f2b03c88
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Indentured Servitude
 Eijanaika / int_f2b03c88
comment
Indentured Servitude: The sex slavery that Ine was sold into was temporary; her father says "her term should be up by now," and indeed Genji discovers that Ine is working for herself, albeit in a pervy sex show. Women are held in debt bondage in the usual way but they can get out. Genji buys the freedom of one indentured servant and is outraged to learn that her father just sold her right back.
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 Eijanaika / int_fb6b207f
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You Killed My Father
 Eijanaika / int_fb6b207f
comment
You Killed My Father: Before Itoman kills Ijuin he makes sure to tell him why, reminding Ijuin that Ijuin and his shogunate goons killed Itoman's entire family back on the Ryukus.
 Eijanaika / int_fb6b207f
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 Eijanaika / int_fcd46998
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Red-Light District
 Eijanaika / int_fcd46998
comment
Red Light District: East Ryogoku, where prostitutes work in bamboo cages, the streets are lined with sex shows and freak shows, women are literally sold, and hapless men are press-ganged into the shogun's army.
 Eijanaika / int_fcd46998
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 Eijanaika / int_fdb3b2b5
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Lady Drunk
 Eijanaika / int_fdb3b2b5
comment
Lady Drunk: Ine says that she sells her art, not her body (although apparently she was still whoring right up until Genji arrived), and that it's better than living on the edge of starvation as a farmer. But she's also a drunk who sometimes gets so intoxicated that she falls down.
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Eijanaika

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 Eijanaika
hasFeature
Eye Pop / int_ecf06b7