“Shinoda began directing right after Oshima (who was his contemporary in the Shochiku Company), and quickly established himself as one of the leaders of the ‘new wave'. Tears on the Lion's Mane was his eighth film, and the second scripted by Terayama, then known principally as a young poet. Shinoda himself considers it the first film in which he fully achieved his ambitions.... Set in the docks of Yokohama...it's about the violence, frustration and anger of a young dock-worker (the ‘lion' of the title) who tries to break up a strike out of a misguided sense of loyalty to his crooked boss. All ‘new wave' life is here: melodrama, poetry, blood, politics...and rock'n'roll.” Edinburgh Film Festival '84