Gokudô no onna-tachi: Jôen (2005)

The Suganuma-gumi, a yakuza organization in Hyogo, holds a meeting of its senior officers to discuss choosing a successor to its current boss (Minoru Oki), taking his poor health into consideration. The officers recommend Kawamoto Kazumitsu (Naoki Hosaka), the young men’s leader. However, Namiko (Reiko Takashima), the female boss of the Saigo-gumi, a faction under the Sugawara-gumi, objects, criticizing the senior officers for disregarding the current boss. The succession talks are put on hold. After her husband’s death, Namiko took over the Saigo-gumi and has worked with all its members to protect it. She had been considering handing its leadership to her brother-in-law, Kyohei (Junpei Yamada). But after hearing about the officers’ meeting from Kawamoto, his wife Ranko (Miko) begins to regard Namiko as an enemy, believing she intends to hand the Suganuma-gumi’s leadership to Kyohei. The Kawamotos feel they need a powerful backer to secure the succession, so they ask Nagamine Shozo (Yutaka Matsushige), a prominent yakuza in Osaka’s large Sakashita-gumi, for help. Around this time, a woman named Baek Yeong-ok (Aya Sugimoto) appears before Namiko, saying she has come from Korea to look for her husband. The photograph she shows Namiko is of Kawamoto. Namiko advises Yeong-ok, who does not know that Kawamoto became a yakuza in Japan, that it would be better for her not to meet him. But a few days later, Yeong-ok finds him again on her own. She learns that Kawamoto has become a yakuza and started a new family, gives up on him, but decides to stay in Japan for a while. Namiko is summoned, along with the acting boss, by the head of the Sugawara-gumi. She is moved by his unexpected words: he wants Kyohei to become the second-generation boss. One night, while Kyohei is patrolling the Saigo-gumi’s territory, he is attacked by an illicit-drug addict wielding a knife. Yeong-ok, who happens to be there, saves his life. Kaori (Ai Maeda), a woman who is in love with Kyohei, takes Yeong-ok into her home out of gratitude for saving his life. Namiko realizes that this attack was carried out in the same way as the one in which her husband was killed. Yeong-ok and Kaori quickly become close when they discover that they both grew up in complicated family circumstances, and their relationship deepens until they are like sisters. After learning of Yeong-ok’s existence, Ranko begins to direct her anger at Kawamoto. While keeping up the appearance of a normal marriage, she secretly becomes Nagamine’s mistress. Later, Ranko invites Namiko, Kawamoto, and Nagamine to the upscale club she has opened. Yeong-ok, who has started working there as a hostess, is also present, and complicated feelings swirl among them. When Nagamine tells Namiko that he intends to make Kyohei into a major yakuza under his own tutelage, she warns him off by saying that her brother-in-law is slated to become the Suganuma-gumi’s second-generation boss. Determined to show proper respect to Kawamoto, Kyohei tells him he has decided to take over as the second-generation boss, then bows and asks for his cooperation going forward. Later, Kyohei becomes engaged to Kaori and visits the Suganuma-gumi’s main residence with Kawamoto. He tells the boss about the succession and his engagement, and receives the boss’s treasured protective dagger. On the way back, however, Kyohei is attacked by three unidentified men. Kawamoto makes no attempt to help him. Kyohei is seriously injured, and Kaori dies shielding him. After being devastated by Kaori’s death, Namiko and Yeong-ok learn that the attack was orchestrated by Kawamoto, Nagamine, and Ranko, and are filled with fury. Later, as Kawamoto and the others gather for the funeral of the deceased Suganuma-gumi boss, Namiko appears with Yeong-ok, holding the protective dagger, and becomes a vengeful demon.