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Although shown at Japan House in 1981, Bonchi was first released in Japan in 1960 as an attack, with and without humor, on the beginnings of the feminist movement. The story centers around a family's merchant business that has been handed down from mother to daughter, but the daughter has an only son, and therein lies the rub. Worse yet, the son has inherited his mother's genes and can only beget male heirs. Try as he might, through a few wives and mistresses, only little boys are born to carry on the family business. Eventually, the matriarches of the clan die off and the son finally has to come to grips with his own life in his own way.