Spring, 1932. A soldier, Private Mizoguchi, sneaks out of the barracks in the middle of the night. The commanding officer, Captain Miyagi, is alerted and soon the hunt is on for the soldier. The search party soon finds Private Mizoguchi and offers him a simple solution – suicide. However, a struggle ensues and a sergeant is killed by accident. Captain Miyagi learns that Private Mizoguchi’s older sister, Karou, is being sold off to a brothel by her poverty-stricken father. The selling of daughters was shockingly common during this time period, particularly in the rural Tohoku region of northeast Japan. Known as the rice basket of Japan, the Tohoku region suffered a severe famine in the early 1930s, leading many fathers to sell their daughters, just to make ends meet. Although this practice had a long history in both China and Japan, the experiences during the Great Depression fueled many young officers’ desire for radical reform in the shape of a coup d’é tat. 

DVD-R is in Japanese with switchable English subtitles. Approx. 150 mins. See film sample for audio and video quality!