A Town of Love and Hope

The film Oshima made was originally titled The Boy Who Sold Pigeon, but the producers changed the films title to Street of Love and Hope, , against Oshima's wishes. The film focuses on a young man named Masao whose father has passed away, whose mother is sick, and whose sister is mildly retarded. In order to make ends meet, Masao works at his mother's shoeshine booth and also sells his sister's pet pigeons. It would of course seem that selling the pigeons would be a one time thing, but since the birds are homing pigeons they return to Masao and then he is able to sell them again.