SYNOPSIS
Harry Kilmer is an ex-GI who stayed in Japan after the war to live with his mistress, Tanaka Eiko, until her brother, Ken, returned from the Philippines. When the daughter of an American shipping magnate, George Tanner, is kidnapped by a yakuza gangster, Tono, Kilmer agrees relucrandy to travel back to Japan and rescue her, knowing that he will have to rely on Tanaka Ken for help. Acknowledging his debt to Kilmer for saving Eiko after the war, Tanaka helps to rescue the girl. Kilmer is warned that the underworld will seek revenge on Tanaka; meanwhile Tanner makes a deal with Tono, agreeing to co-operate with him in a plan to murder Kilmer. Kilmer's host and Eiko's daughter are killed in an attempt on his life. In response, Kilmer persuades Tanaka to allow him to join in an attack on Tono, spurred on by the revelation that Eiko is in fact Tanaka's wife. The attack is successful, but Tanaka kills his nephew, Spider, and cuts off his own finger as a penance in accordance with the yakuza code. As he prepares to leave Japan, Kilmer realizes that he must do the same for Tanaka to atone for the wrong he did him by living with his wife.

CREDITS
Director: Sydney Pollack
Producers: Shundo Koji, Sydney Pollack, MieJtael Hamilburg
Screenplay: Paul Schrader, Leonard Schrader, Robert Towne
Cinematography: Okazaki Kozo, Duke Callaghan
Editors: Fredric Steinkamp, Thomas Standford, Don Guidice
Production designer: Stephen Grimes

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