On its release, She and He was compared by western critics to the films of Antonioni, and indeed Susumu Hani enters similar thematic territory in this telling of a middle-class woman's sudden realization of her alienation from the world around her. Naoko (Sachiko Hidari) lives comfortably with her young-executive husband (Eiji Okada, Hiroshima, Mon Amour) in a sterile Tokyo suburb; in a marriage drained of passion, they have virtually become "She" and "He." Hani infuses an elliptical narrative with a sense of authenticity drawn from on-location shooting and a cast of both professional and nonprofessional actors: Ikona, the ragpicker, is portrayed by a spindly painter in his first acting role; the blind girl, by a blind girl. Sachiko Hidari won the Best Actress award at the 1964 Berlin Film Festival for her altogether contemporary portrayal of a woman driven mad by so-called "happiness." "A young housewife in a good neighborhood refuses to ignore the ragman, the blind girl, the homeless dog, and thus precipitates a confrontation with, among others, her husband,” wrote Donald Richie. “But she won't back down-the order of the pronouns in the title tells it all."