Directed by:
Tomu UchidaComposer:
Isao TomitaVOD (1)
Plots(1)
In 1947, a freak typhoon sends a passenger ferry running between Hokkaido and mainland Japan plunging to the ocean depths, with hundreds of lives lost. During the chaos, three men are witnessed fleeing a burning pawnshop in the Hokkaido port town of Iwanai. The police suspect theft and arson, and when Detective Yumisaka (Junzaburo Ban) discovers the burned remains of a boat and the corpses of two men, he sets about tracking the shadowy third figure. Meanwhile, the mysterious Takichi Inukai (Rentaro Mikuni) takes shelter with a prostitute, Yae (Sachiko Hidari), a brief encounter that will come to define both of their lives. A decade later, long after the trail has gone cold, Yumisaka is called back by his successor Detective Ajimura (Ken Takakura) as two new dead bodies are found. Making its home video debut outside of Japan, this adaptation of Tsutomu Minakami's 1700-page novel is a landmark in master director Uchida's oeuvre. Its gritty monochrome photography has the immediacy of newsreel as Uchida uses the landscapes of postwar Japan to explore the massive social upheaval and unspoken legacies of the war, and create an unsettling karmic allegory of a man's struggle to escape his past sins. (Arrow Films)
(more)Cast
![Rentarô Mikuni](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/000/272/272791_ba5bb5.jpg)
Rentarô Mikuni
Japan
Best movies:
Natsu no niwa - The Friends (1994)
Harakiri (1962)
Zatoichi at Large (1972)
![Sachiko Hidari](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/000/279/279570_6dd07e.jpg)
Sachiko Hidari
Japan
Best movies:
Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (1972)
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
Insect Woman (1963)
![Susumu Fujita](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/000/271/271342_95544c.jpg)
Susumu Fujita
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Asu o tsukuru hitobito (1946)
High and Low (1963)
![Akiko Kazami](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/158/188/158188428_91fdd2.jpg)
Akiko Kazami
Japan
Best movies:
Red Beard (1965)
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
Repast (1951)
![Ken Takakura](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/000/275/275644_fd95f2.jpg)
Ken Takakura
Japan
Best movies:
Antarctica (1983)
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
The Yellow Handkerchief (1977)
Kōji Mitsui
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Woman of the Dunes (1964)
High and Low (1963)
Hideo Murota
Japan
Best movies:
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
The Shogun's Samurai (1978)
Kagemusha (1980)
伴淳三郎
Japan
Best movies:
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
The Old Bear Hunter (1982)
Dodes'ka-den (1970)
加藤嘉
Japan
Best movies:
Bushido, Samurai Saga (1963)
Immortal Love (1961)
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
Nobuo Yana
Japan
Best movies:
河合絃司
Japan
Best movies:
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
Karate Warriors (1976)
Graveyard of Honor (1975)
Sadako Sawamura
Japan
Best movies:
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
Late Autumn (1960)
Good Morning (1959)
Kinto Tamura
Japan
Best movies:
Three Outlaw Samurai (1964)
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
Like the Clouds, Like the Wind (1990)
Junnosuke Takasu
Japan
Best movies:
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
Takashi Toyama
Best movies:
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
Dagger of Kamui (1985)