[3][4][5] An alternate term for the shōshimin-eiga is the pseudo-Japanese word shomin-geki, literally "common people drama",[2] which had been invented by Western film scholars.
[1] The term shōshimin-eiga as a definition of a specifically Japanese film genre presumably first appeared in 1932 in articles by critics Yoshio Ikeda and Ichiro Ueno.
Through their portrayal of social inequalities and capitalism's extended reach on daily life in the shape of company hierarchy, these films suggested a split between Japan's call for modernisation and the longing for the "mystic cohesion" of a "traditional" past.
[11] Kenji Mizoguchi, although having repeatedly turned to modern subjects, the oppression of women under a patriarchical system in particular, is usually not assigned to the genre canon.
[3] Important early (and extant) examples of the shōshimin-eiga are Shimazu's Our Neighbor, Miss Yae (1934),[1][7][9] Ozu's Tokyo Chorus (1931) and I Was Born, But... (1932),[1][5][9] and Gosho's Burden of Life (1935).