Humanity and Paper Balloons (人情紙風船, Ninjō kami fūsen) is a 1937 Japanese jidaigeki tragedy film directed by Sadao Yamanaka.

It depicts the struggles and schemes of Matajuro Unno, a rōnin, or masterless samurai, and his neighbor Shinza, a hairdresser.

Shinza, though a hairdresser by trade, actually makes his living by running illicit gambling rooms and pawning his belongings.

Shinza often gets beaten up by local pawn shop owner Shiroko Ya's gang for money he owes and for secretly organizing gambling games in their territory.

Shinza loses all of his money when the gang chases him out of a secret gambling den, so he boldly goes to Shiroko's shop to pawn his hairdressing equipment.

After learning that Okoma has not come home, Shiroko sends Yatagoro and his gang to pay Shinza quietly with a ransom to preserve the girl's reputation before the wedding.

Unno's wife comes back from her sister's just in time to see her husband breaking his promise and heading to the bar.

When confronted by his wife, he lies to her again, promising that he gave the letter to Mouri and that he must now wait for the turmoil of the kidnapping to subside.

After he passes out on the floor, she finds his father's letter still in his pocket and finally knows for certain that Mouri has mistreated and insulted her husband all along.

As a last resort to save their honor, she takes out a tantō (short sword) and kills her husband and then commits seppuku.

The year of the film's release, Yamanaka was sent to the Chinese front, possibly as retribution for his antipatriotic sentiments, and died there in 1938.

[8] Jasper Sharp of Midnight Eye described the film as "a fascinating time capsule of a movie that not only reframes the feudal period in which it is set to present a harsh critique of the social and political conditions of the time it was made, but also demonstrates just how tight, coherent, and entertaining films from this period actually were.