Fireflies features ChikageAwashima in a compelling portrayal of Tose, proprietress of the Teradaya Inn. Anunhappy marriage without the consolation of children forces Tose to concentrateon business, through which she establishes her contacts with the ronin andsamurai of the Satsuma clan, leaders of the movement to restore the Emperor torule. But it is through her relationship with Ryoma Sakamoto, the ronin whom sheprotects and hides, that she comes to realize the relationship between her owndesperation and that of the country on the whole as a result of the politicalrepression of the Tokugawa shogunate. Fireflies is a woman's film but an unusualfilm-one of the very few to discuss the problem of women under feudalism in aTokugawa setting°.This extraordinary film (is) a truly political work in thesubtle delineation of the relationship between political structure and theindividual.-Frank Motofuji