Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) is an internet reseller of whatever he can bargain cheaply for and hopefully resell at retail or wholesale at an enormous profit. Good freedom of enterprise all legitimate unless the merchandise is counterfeit. Operate in the cloud as Yoshii does under a pseudonym Ratel then the transactions are all anonymous and completed with impunity? As that Kim Mitchell song plays, “grab a soda and nobody gets hurt”.
Yoshii has cultivated enemies in his quest for financial success including driving brutally hard bargains and unloading counterfeit merchandise to other resellers purchasing from Yoshii that paid the additional price of being beaten by angry purchasers realizing they have been duped. In his personal life he has refused a promotion in his day factory job offered numerous times by his boss Mr. Takimoto (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) grossly offended by Yoshii’s rejection. Then there is Muraoka (Masataka Kubota) a vocational college fellow student who he refuses an offer to join with in a business enterprise. Yoshii terminates Sano (Daken Okudaira) his assistant for snooping on his computer. In fact there are so many aggrieved individuals they band together and hunt down Yoshii seeking revenge.
Yoshii’s sales are sufficient to finance a move from Tokyo to a quiet village living in a large rented lakeside house. His girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa) joins him. It is clear she is an avid consumer and wants to spend, spend and spend and Yoshii is her golden ticket.
Before moving from Tokyo Yoshii discovers a dead rat on his doorstep and has tripwire set outside his home causing a nasty spill on his motorcycle. In his new home an automotive part is thrown through his window and a Mercedes cruises menacingly outside his home in darkness. The mystery is in full swing!
His enemies unite and hunt down Ratel. The hunt, at times, is somewhat comedic but when Ratel the prey is in their clutch’s matters turn nasty and deadly. In the ensuing gunbattles it is Sano that comes to Yoshii’s rescue becoming Yoshii’s ally. This and Sano’s proficiency with firearms seem odd indeed for an assistant he employed to ally himself with a boss that terminated him.
Who is behind all the commotion and why? For a starter pay very close attention to Sano’s meeting with a “syndicate” member on a train station platform and his sending his best regards to the “chairman”. And the surreal car ride by Sano and Yoshii concluding the film will answer all your questions. Yoshii is an unwitting Jabez Stone and Mr. Scratch is clearly nearby? Sano is Charon?
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Makes a Canadian theatrical run commencing 18July2025.
Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsU2vNvHwns
RKS 2025 Film Rating 93/100.
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 