Query: Non-samurai films set in the Edo period
Domain: films
Relevant documents:
Eijanaika (film)
Kōchiyama Sōshun (1936 film)
Snow on the Blades
Absolutely Secret: Girl Torture
The King Kong That Appeared in Edo
Kamen Rider OOO Wonderful: The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals
Red Beard
Sabu (film)
The Lower Depths (1957 film)
Humanity and Paper Balloons
Evidence from documents: Eijanaika (film): The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ee ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which turns into a massacre.
Absolutely Secret: Girl Torture: Set in the Edo Era, the film opens with a group of women being convicted of various crimes.
The King Kong That Appeared in Edo: is a 1938 Japanese two-part silent period piece drama film set during the Edo period
Kamen Rider OOO Wonderful: The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals: While leading an expedition in Thuringia, Germany, Kousei Kougami and Erika Satonaka unearth the tomb of an alchemist named Gara. With the seal broken, Gara uses his magic to revive himself, capture Kougami and Satonaka, raise a tower protected by a magical barrier, and flip the area over to Japan.
Red Beard: Based on Shūgorō Yamamoto's 1959 short story collection, ''Akahige Shinryōtan'', the film takes place in Koishikawa, a district of Edo, towards the end of the Tokugawa period, and is about the relationship between a town doctor and his new trainee.
Sabu (film): '''''Sabu''''' is a 2002 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Takashi Miike and adapted from the classic Japanese rite-of-passage novel by Shūgorō Yamamoto.
Eiji, Sabu, and Nobuko grow up as friends at the Kobunecho orphanage during the Edo period. Years later, Eiji is framed for the theft of a 100-ryo piece of gold cloth from the Watabun Bank and is sent to the Ishikawa Island workhouse. Refusing to speak, Eiji is dubbed "Bushu" by the head guard Ryojiro Kojima. Sabu is fired by from his job as a paper hanger by Hokodo for his constant visits to see Eiji and is sent out into the country, where he develops beriberi. When Osue visits Eiji, Eiji explains that he believes that he was framed by Watabun and others who believed that Eiji intended to marry Watabun's daughter. Eiji insists that he had no such intention and that he only loves Osue but that she must forget about him because he has devoted his life to revenge.
The Lower Depths (1957 film): is a 1957 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, based on the 1902 play ''The Lower Depths'' by Maxim Gorky. The setting was changed for the film from late 19th-century Russia to Edo period Japan.
In a run-down Edo tenement, an elderly man and his bitter wife rent out rooms and beds to the poor. The tenants are gamblers, prostitutes, petty thieves and drunk layabouts, all struggling to survive. The landlady’s younger sister who helps the landlords with maintenance, brings in an old man and rents him a bed. Kahei, who dresses as a Buddhist pilgrim, quickly assumes the role of a mediator and grandfatherly figure, though there is an air of mystery about him, and some of the tenants suspect his past is not unblemished.
Humanity and Paper Balloons: is a 1937 black-and-white film directed by Sadao Yamanaka, his last film.
The film is set in feudal Japan during the 18th century, an era known as the Edo period. It depicts the struggles and schemes of Matajuro Unno, a rōnin, or masterless samurai, and his neighbor Shinza, a hairdresser.



A scene from the film


The story begins in a slum where poor families perform menial jobs. Shinza, though a hairdresser by trade, actually makes his living by running illicit gambling rooms and pawning his belongings. Unno, who lives with his wife next door, is the son of Matabei Unno, a great samurai. Since his father's death, Unno has struggled to find work and hopes that Mouri, his father's former master, will hire him after reading a letter from his father. Mouri avoids Unno and finds excuses not to read his father's letter. Nevertheless, Unno seeks out Mouri every day and follows him wherever he goes. Mouri tries to get rid of Unno by sending a gang of men to intimidate him and telling his gate guards to keep him out.