Setting: Osaka from the 1920s to the 1950s.

Synopsis:
Kikuji, the fifth generation head of an Osaka tabi maker (a special Japanese sock), narrates the story of his life in flashback. Born in a family run by his mother and grandmother, Kikuji's life is controlled by the two women. They choose his first wife, Hiroko, and when she fails to follow family custom, send her back home after she has given birth to an heir. With his father's death, Kikuji inherits the business but spends much his time playing in the pleasure quarters. There he meets a geisha named Ponta with whom he has an affair. But again, after she gives birth to a son, the two older woman pay her off and send her on her way.
With news of the Manchurian Incident sounding in the streets, Kikuji has anoher affair with Hisako, a club hostess. He also resumes an old liason with Ikuko, another geisha who dies during childbirth. But custom prevents Kikuji from attending her funeral. Instead, he views it secretly from a second floor window and takes comfort in the arms of another female acquaintance, Ofuku.
As Kikuji visits his sons in the country during WWII, the family business is burned to the ground during an air raid, leaving only the fire-proof warehouse standing. Kikuji takes shelter there, as do his mistresses, who arrive one by one. He decides to divide the family fortune win them, a bold act that sparks his grandmother's suicide. With the end of the war, Kikuji visits his 3 mistresses, but opts to give up on them. We return to the present to find a poorer Kikuji with only the loyal family maid remaining by his side.

Notes:
Ichikawa Kon's almost clinical approach to his characters, coupled with a coolly modern visual style, have served as the foundation for both his satirical films and his ironic tragedies. Bonchi tends towards the latter, with Ichikawa's abrupt editing and masterful use of the widescreen frame accenting the pitiful absurdity of Kikuji's condition. Although the politically minded Japanese film critics never admired Ichikawa's wry cynicism, the color sceme in Bonchi contrasting the colorful with the non-colorful sets up an opposition between modernity and tradition, pleasure and business, and peace and war, turning this 50 year narrative of a man's life into a version of Japanese 20th century history.