After running up a large bill at a brothel, a rakugoka (a traditional Japanese storyteller) is forced to stay and work off his debt. Trapped among prostitutes, merchants, samurais, political agitators and distinguished guests, he becomes a chronicler of the social upheaval at the end of the Edo period in 1862.

Famously co-written by Shohei Imamura,Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate was one of Akira Kurosawa’s favourite movies, and was recently rated one of the top five greatest Japanese films of all time.