Okiku and the World

It is one of the most thankless tasks in human coexistence to have to deal in detail with the physical excretions of one's fellow men. Yasuke takes on this task in Edo period Japan with a certain calm matter-of-factness and collects what the wealthier excrete in order to sell it to the poorer farmers to fertilize their fields. The unfortunate social situation soon leads Chunji to him, who finds that in times of need, paper sells for less than excrement. As a sewer substitute, they pluckily fill their buckets with the excrement of the nobles, including that of the graceful Okiku and her father, a dropped samurai with a penchant for pessimistic philosophy. Yasuke senses the germination of tender feelings toward the higher-ranking Okiku, but for once he lacks the plan of how to fertilize them, seeing himself wholly out of place as a fecal boy in the face of the samurai's daughter. But a horrific act of violence brings the two closer and not only class barriers must now be overcome together.

Director Junji SAKAMOTO has been working in the film land of Japan for many years and still manages to make his socially critical tragicomedy with a romantic approach seem youthfully fresh and very elegant despite the malodorous theme.