“Shohei Imamura was assistant director and co-scriptwriter with Yuzo Kawashima on this and several of Kawashima's other films. Popular singer and comedian of the time, Frankie Sakai, stars as the deadbeat Saheiji, who comes to carouse at a Shinagawa brothel with no money up his kimono sleeve. After evading his bill for a few days, he finally volunteers to work off the debts he has incurred. In the process, he endears himself to the innkeeper, has two rival prostitutes indentured to the establishment fall in love with him, and is taken into the confidence of a brash young samurai involved in plots against the collapsing Tokugawa Government. Eventually, Saheiji, an incorrigible drifter, makes his escape from the inn, off into the winter cold to find some new adventures.
“Kawashima, who died of a heart attack at the age of 45 in 1963, was known in his brief career for biting satirical comedies on Japanese social relations. His films were almost invariably set indoors, sometimes in only one or two rooms, with the action passing in and out of these often claustrophobic sets. Exterior scenes in his films are rare. Kawashima started his career at Shochiku Studios and moved to Nikkatsu in the late fifties. Bakumatsu Taiyoden and Elegant Beast (Shitoyaka na kedamono) are his masterpieces.” David Owens, Japan Society