Poor people, trying to keep their heads above water, trying to hold on to what little they have, trying to get out of debt, people the prosperity of Japan in the 1950s has passed by. Yûko Mochizuki tries to earn enough to make it through the year, eking out her rice paddy by fishing for eel, even though the landowner will want it back when the crop is reaped. Shinjirô Ebara goes smelting with his friend, breaking the law for a larger catch. Occasionally.... twice in this two-hour movie, they raise their heads to look at the beauty around them. They don't have time for it. They're too busy trying to survive. It's the audience who gets to see the beauty, the wind on the rice paddies, the boats setting out.
Tadashi Imai's movie owes a lot to Italian neo-realism, even if it is in color. It centers on the hardships of the poor, but it doesn't condemn the rich. In the small village where it takes place, we don't see anyone rich, not the landlord who wants his tiny field back so his son can sow it, not the boat owner who rents the young men their trawler. they're all struggling to stay even, hoping that the field will produce enough rice for his son to live on, that the fisherman won't wreck his boat. For the poor people in this movie, there's nothing.
