In the movie, Imamura Shōhei did his best to create an oriental tribal life that is exhausted to be true. The stage play elements in Keisuke Kinoshita's version have been removed, and Imamura added a lot of primitive life descriptions, natural environment shots, and even direct sex and erotic shots, which better reflect the power of life. Survival is the problem that humans and animals face together. The death of the mother-in-law is no longer like Keisuke Kinoshita’s complaint about custom, but more like a sacrifice for inheritance, and it is also another tribute to the power of female maternity.
The director is like studying an ancient fossil. Through the special language of the film, he shows a closed world that adheres to primitive customs, where people live awkwardly and persistently, and die in the white snow. The simple outlook on life embodies the tenacity of their lives, but this primitive and simple moral customs suppresses their humanity invisibly. In the film, the audience not only saw death but also saw a hymn of life. The film presents both the living and the dead with a sense of beauty and solemnity.
