In Tokyo, inside a closed beer hall, a middle-age bohemian painter, Umeda, arrives and takes his usual seat at the bar while listening to a young singer, Kenichi, practicing an art song under the strict tutelage of his teacher, Eto Kinya. Barmaids arrive and begin to set up the bar and tables, while one of them, Yuki, who will later perform as part of the evening’s entertainment, gets onstage and rehearses, accompanied on accordion by Kenichi. The beer hall opens to customers and Umeda’s alcoholic friend Tetsuo enters and greets him. Among the first customers to arrive is Onizuka, a former military officer, now a down-on-his-luck estate agent. Kibe, a former soldier who is sitting at a nearby table, recognizes Onizuka, who was once known as “the demon,” as his superior officer during the war, and he is invited by Onizuka to share a drink with him. The two men, who are militarists, are very displeased by the non-Japanese music playing from the onstage record player and by the left-wing students drinking and singing nearby. At one point, Kibe and Onizuka hear singing from the street outside the bar and, assuming that it is a patriotic war song, happily join in, only to discover to their embarrassment that the people in the street are really singing a Leftist anthem. A young yakuza, Morimoto, enters with his gang. He calls the young barmaid Yuki to his table. Apparently, Morimoto had once claimed Yuki for his own girl, and he frightens her by telling her they are looking for another yakuza: Masumi, Yuki’s current boyfriend. While she is singing the Japanese folk song “Sakura” onstage, Masumi enters and faces down the gang by stabbing Morimoto’s hand with a fork and forcing him to hand over some money. Masumi leaves a message for Yuki with Umeda that he will soon be departing for Osaka and expects her to meet him at the train station. He exits the beer hall with Morimoto and his gang in hot pursuit.

DVD-R is in Japanese with switchable English subtitles. Approx. 94 mins. See film sample for audio and video quality!