In an unusual film, shot on location in Africa, Hani compares a compulsive, high-strung specimen of Japanese civilization with a relaxed African people who display their emotions freely and directly. Toshi arrives in rural Africa, where he understands neither the language nor the customs, with a prefabricated house which he is to erect for a university study group. "Toshi (played by the actor later famous as Tora-san) is a true innocent who finds himself in Africa with a job to do and no way to do it except by learning what it means to be African....A Japanese bereft of (his own culture and prejudices), as Toshi eventually is, is no Japanese at all. He is, as Hani shows, a human being, like all others....That the film is not plotted is one of its strengths. It purposely rambles and among its casual disclosures are some very fine and Hani-like scenes." (Donald Richie)