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This groundbreaking study in social criticism was made by one of the earliest revolutionaries in Japanese filmmaking, Kenji Misoguchi (1898-1956), who pioneered the use of realistic characters and situations in films made in his homeland. Misoguchi was a great advocate of women's rights during his lifetime, and many of his films dealt with women's issues. In the story, which is set in 1884, a former schoolteacher working with the Liberal Party for women's rights finds herself falsely imprisoned when she tries to help a woman millhand who was raped, and she attempts to burn down the mill in protest. Only becoming well-known in the West some 30 years later, this 1949 film was strongly protested at the time it was made, not only for its violence, but for its social commentary.