Kiyoshi Nonomura

京浜工業地帯の一角で鉄工所を経営している川瀬周三は、昭和４１年になって、めっきり身体のおとろえを覚え、工場の実務を２６歳になる一人息子の武志に譲った。そして、秋には、妻・雪枝の郷里から田切杏子を迎え、結婚式をひかえていた。順風満帆、周三にはおだやかな老後が残されているだけのように思えた。昭和４１年５月、武志は、友人吉川と近くの釣り堀に出かけた帰り道、ある若者とすれ違った瞬間、腹部を刃物で刺され「お父さん、口惜しいよ、こんなことで死ぬなんて、仇は必ずとってくれよ」と言うと、周三の腕の中で息たえた。

During the early days of the war a young student, Makito (Kazuo Funaki), falls in love with Yuko (Mayumi Ozora), the widow of a naval officer. She, however, is living with the memories of her husband and it is her younger sister, Yumiko (Nana Ozaki), who grows fond of the student. Then, one day, a young naval officer, Tadayuki (Ken Ogata), a friend of her late husband, comes to see the widow and she becomes attracted to him. Though Makito is inspired to study for the navy, he is much upset when he learns that Yuko and Tadayuki are to marry.

Based on a story by Akiyuki Nosaka.

A Japanese soldier deserts his position and travels to a small town on the Sea of Japan to start over. When a young maid falls for him, he talks her into sleeping with an older man for money.

Epic saga of an idealistic land-owning family dealing with militarism, war, social change and economic reform.

A group of ne'er-do-wells live happily in the slums of what is now Tokyo and have a number of adventures: they get drunk and go whoring, revenge themselves on cruel landlords, animate the corpse of a money-lender in order to frighten people. Then they assist at the marriage of a lovely girl and almost kill themselves gambling to provide her with a dowry.

Shinichi is not only poor, he is also deaf, and leads a joyless life with his sick mother. His one happiness is his friendship with a girl who works in a bar nearby. Then, one day, his mother dies after drinking the medicine that Shinichi himself gave her. It is discovered that the pills contained poison. He is apprehended on suspicion of murder and taken away for interrogation, unable to defend himself - being deaf and dumb - or even to proclaim his innocence.

A Tokyo family escaping the war relocates to a Hokkaido village; their daughter is set to marry the local leader's son, but her siblings disapprove.

A demobilized soldier becomes a day laborer with a road construction gang, and his wife goes to work to bolster their income. Their modest dream is to see their son grow and to be happy as a family.

The year is 1932, and a woman, whose tenant-farmer fiancé is fighting in China, is raped by the landowner's son, who has returned from the war with a crippling injury, and then forced into marriage with him. In four more chapters, presented over three decades, their children undertake their own searches for love, while the parents try to make each other as miserable as possible.