This is another recognizably different addition to Ichikawa Kon's mixed filmography. Before his massive "Kindaichi" hits of the late 1970's, the director made several more experimental films, often with smaller budgets such as "Matatabi" (The Wonderers, 1973). This film has high goals. It attempts to de-glorify the Edo period by showing the amount of human misery among Japan's poorest people. The three lead characters are toseinin, traveling men who fight for food. Their existence is sad and hopeless, and Ichikawa uses them to hammer in his points.
I think Kon is on a fine quest here, but I don't like end product. Similar messages have been much better relayed, for instance in the films of Kobayashi Masaki and Imai Tadashi. This is not a particularly well put-together film. The budgetary strains are all too visible, and the narrative didn't really click for me on the character's personal level. I also find Ichikawa's humour to be very hit & miss for my taste. I prefer his more serious films to those with comedic undertones, such as this. The game of greetings, for example, overstayed its welcome before the narrative had properly begun.
So good intentions aside, this is not one of Ichikawa's 50 best films, but if you are a completionist check it out, you might get more from it than I did.
