In 1923, teenager Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees.
Acting
Kitano abandons his cool persona for something genuinely monstrous.
Direction
Sai's unflinching gaze never lets you look away from cruelty.
Director
Yōichi Sai
Takeshi Kitano
Joon-pyong Kim
Hirofumi Arai
Masao Kim
Kyoka Suzuki
Yong-hee Lee
Joe Odagiri
Takeshi Park
Yutaka Matsushige
Nobuyoshi Ko
Tomoko Tabata
Hanako Kim
Mari Hamada
Sadako Toritani
Atsushi Ito
Yong-il / Young Joon-pyong
Shuji Kashiwabara
San-myung Jang
Kazuki Kitamura
Yoshio Motoyama
Jun Kunimura
Yong-sang Jo
Mami Nakamura
Sanae Otani
Takashi Nishina
Yong-su Kim
Kozo Sato
Tae-su Kim
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film centers Zainichi Koreans—ethnic Koreans in Japan facing systemic discrimination, a rarely depicted community in cinema.
Based on Yang Sok-il's semi-autobiographical novel; Sai spent years securing funding because distributors feared Kitano's against-type performance would alienate fans.
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