Synopsis:

Takaaki Ise, president of the Ise Corporation, manages restaurants and clubs in Tokyo and also launders money for the Sasaki yakuza gang. Later we learn that Ise was actually born Yoshiro Haga and his new identity conceals a dreadful past which he has never revealed to a living soul.

One night, Ise runs into the Ginza bar hostess, Chikako. A few days later Chikako’s lover, Okabori, a freelance journalist, is shot dead. Police sergeant Sako has his suspicions about Chikako, but she has a water-tight alibi. Investigations show that the gun used in Okabori’s murder is the same one used 10 years ago in a yet unsolved murder case of a prominent financier, Ikejiri, whose body was found floating in the Tamagawa River. Sergeant Sako begins to investigate possible links between the two killings.

Ise reads of Okabori’s death in the newspapers. He takes it upon himself to visit Shinji, owner of a small Japanese bar/restaurant. Ise questions Shinji for possible motives for Okabori’s murder. Chikako opines it was because Okabori was working on a story about a possible link between Ise and Kaoru Mabuchi, a famous violinist. Many years ago, Ise (Haga) murdered his father because of his brutal abuse of Ise’s mother which eventually drove her to kill herself by setting fire to the house she lived in. The house had belonged to her second husband and Ise’s grasping father was determined to plunder it and her other assets. Prior to this, Ise’s mother had remarried and had a daughter, Ise’s half-sister, who grew up to be the famous violinist Kaoru Mabuchi.

After Ise’s mother died he was raised in an orphanage which is where he first ran into Chikako and Shinji. Once he was old enough, Ise left the orphanage, procured a gun and shot and killed his father. He later changed his name to protect his half sister. We learn that the journalist Okabori discovered the link between Kaoru and Ise. He tried to cash in on this knowledge by blackmailing Kaoru’s fiance, Keisuke, the rich heir to the Nishiji Group of companies.

The love of the three children who lived together in the orphanage has survived the many years since then. When Shinji and Chikako learned that Okabori was threatening Kaoru’s fiance, they killed him, using the gun Ise had used when he shot his father. As the police close in on the murderers, Ise tells Shinji and Chikako to hide themselves away.
Sergeant Sako finally discovers the relationship between the three orphans and Ise’s real identity. If the killings many years ago are linked with the journalist’s murder, Ise will lose Shinji and Chikako and destroy his half sister’s happiness and career. He decides to deflect attention away by killing a notorious gangster first and then turning the gun on himself.After attending a concert featuring Kaoru, Ise carries out his plan despite strong objections from the gangster’s moll, Kyoko. Ise is badly wounded in the killing of the gangster and he struggles towards Yaizu Port, where a boat is waiting to smuggle him out of Japan. At the last moment he is captured by Sergeant Sako and dies in Kyoko’s arms. His noble sacrifice did make things easier for Kaoru and as a postscript we see Sergeant Sako at her wedding giving her a bouquet of flowers and a flute that Ise had carried

Notes:

• A drama featuring a man who sacrifices himself to save those he loves.

 

Staff

Director: Kichitaro Negishi

Producers: Takashi Nakagawa

                  Hideyuki Honma, Hideki Kama

Based on the novel by : Toru Shirakawa

Script: Haruhiko Arai

Photography: Osamu Maruike

Lighting: Hideki Mochizuki

Editing: Akira Suzuki

Recording: Kazuo Miyauchi