A cop digs into murder and finds the rot goes all the way to the top.
Assistant police inspector Aida is assigned to investigate the murder of a former gang member. When a justice ministry official is killed days later in a similar manner, he begins to suspect that something bigger is going on...
Acting
Kiichi Nakai's exhausted, principled Aida anchors the moral weight.
Direction
Yōichi Sai builds dread through institutional silence, not cheap thrills.
Director
Yōichi Sai
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sai's film channels post-bubble Japan's crisis of faith in institutions, when yakuza-police collusion scandals were breaking news.
Masato Furuoya, who plays the doomed Higo, was a legendary actor who died by suicide in 2003; his performance here has since taken on haunting retrospective weight.
JP
