Kuhara first declines, but Kyōko's brother Yuji, who has developed an interest in Miss Akiyama, tries to talk him into giving Masao a chance.

Breaking all ties in a final vengeful act, Kyōko once again purchases a pigeon from Masao and has her brother shoot it with his rifle.

Kido, unsatisfied with the result and calling it a "tendency picture", only gave it limited distribution under the title A Town of Love and Hope.

[3] More recent reviewers have pointed out the difference of A Town of Love and Hope both to other Japanese filmmakers of its era and Italian neorealism lying in its refusal to inject humanism or humanist sentiment into its portrayal of class opposition.

[4][6] A Town of Love and Hope was presented at retrospectives on Ōshima at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 2009[7] and at the Cinémathèque Française in 2015.