Nain souruzu (2003)

Kaneko Michiru (Ryuhei Matsuda) entered Room 13 of a dimly lit prison. After ten years as a shut-in, Michiru had killed his father, who had been arguing with Michiru’s younger brother. There were nine other men there besides Michiru. Hasegawa Torakichi (Yoshio Harada), the man who held an unofficial position of authority in the room, was serving time for killing his son. Kuruma Kazuma (Hiroshi Chihara), a legendary biker gang member, had killed four of his comrades. Shishido Ran (Onimaru) was a born delinquent who had grown up in an orphanage. Kamei Fujio (Shinro Itao), the “king of adult videos,” had killed the man he discovered was having an affair with his girlfriend. Saruwatari Kiyoshi (KEE) was a drug dealer in Yokosuka. Shiratori Hidemi (Mame Yamada), a former doctor, had been unable to refuse a patient’s request and had taken the blame for assisted suicide. Inui Shinichi (Takuji Suzuki) was a bomber serving a 15-year sentence. Ushiyama Ichiro (Genta Dairaku) was a man who couldn’t stop himself once he lost his temper. The ninth man, Yamamoto (Jun Kunimura), who called himself the “counterfeit king,” had claimed that he had hidden a fortune in a time capsule at the elementary school he attended at the foot of Mount Fuji. He then became mentally unstable and was taken away by the guards. As Michiru and the eight men ate a simple meal in the gray room, where a faint light filtered in, a mouse appeared from nowhere. Shiratori, a master of escapes, found the hole it had come through, and the nine men managed to escape through it. They raced through the darkness, exhilarated by their newfound freedom. In the mountains, they tied the driver of a red van they had hitchhiked in to a tree, and Kazuma took the wheel. Carrying nine souls, the van set off for the treasure at the elementary school at the foot of Mount Fuji that Yamamoto had spoken about. Along the way, they stopped at the home of Nakayama (Jun Inoue), a former prison-mate of Torakichi’s. After turning the whole house upside down, the men left as if nothing had happened. Their journey continued noisily: they stole offerings from a shrine, raided a small roadside shop, and went into a diner dressed as women. At first, the nine men were at odds with one another, but little by little they began to come together as a group. Michiru alone remained unable to open up. At a strip club they happened upon, Shiratori had a fateful reunion with the person he loved (Misaki Ito), and decided to stay there, getting out of the van. The remaining eight men somehow made it to their destination, the elementary school. Their eyes filled with anticipation as they opened the time capsule in the schoolyard. But what came out was not a fortune, but a glass key labeled “the key to the future that opens anything.” As the men stood at a loss, Michiru quietly slipped the key into his pocket. The eight men gazed at Mount Fuji, faintly emerging in the dawn light. There was no money, but for the first time in their lives, a sense of fulfillment and a new resolve had taken root in their hearts. Then, as if by mutual agreement, they gradually went their separate ways. One went to see an old girlfriend; another started working at a shop they stopped at… They seemed to have found a brief spell of happiness, but in the end they simply could not manage to live ordinary lives. Arrest or death awaited them. By the time Tokyo’s gray skyscrapers began to appear from the expressway, only Torakichi, Michiru, Kazuma, and Inui remained. When they reached Tokyo, they parked the van discreetly between buildings, set a time to meet, and split up. The television news was devoting extensive coverage to them. Heavy rain fell over Tokyo at dusk. Inui suffered an attack brought on by a chronic condition and collapsed in the middle of the city. Kazuma was stabbed on an embankment by former members of his biker gang. Torakichi rushed to his daughter Yuki’s (Takako Matsu) wedding. In front of Yuki in her wedding dress, Torakichi offered her cash he had stolen from a pachinko parlor, trying to make amends for his past mistakes, but Yuki refused it. Michiru’s younger brother Noboru (Eita) appeared on television. “Give my brother the death penalty.” Seeing how much his brother had changed, Michiru felt a fierce anger and headed to Noboru’s workplace. Noboru blamed Michiru for refusing to change and declared, “Are you even human?” Michiru attacked him with a brick he had hidden. Worried that Michiru was taking too long to return, Torakichi started the van. Beneath the building where Michiru had barricaded himself, he honked repeatedly. As if drawn by the sound, Michiru stood up and held the glass key out toward the outside. His closed-off heart slowly began to open.