Sin and Evil

‘A club vandalised, several injuries, one person out of control. Can you take over? Over’. For police officer Akira Yoshida, this marks the start of another night in which he has to deal with some rowdy youths. However, Akira already knows their faces well. They belong to a gang of troublemakers of the same age under the wing of building contractor and restaurant owner Haru Sakamoto. Whether and in what form they are instigated by Haru is uncertain. Apart from these incidents, Akira has something else in common with the supposed gang boss: a close childhood friendship that goes back 20 years. However, that time was not only characterised by joint bike rides and football tournaments, but also by a fateful day that neither of them wants to remember. When a child's body is found under a bridge, just like back then, this tragedy is brought back to the men's minds.

Newcomer director Yūki SAITŌ adapts his own crime thriller screenplay and skilfully moves between the time periods of his multi-layered story. The opaque Haru is played by Kengo KŌRA, a former Blue Ribbon Award winner for The Story of Yonosuke (2013). It was not the only award in his award-rich career. At Japannual, he was seen as Mishima in No Longer Human (2020) and as the same character in Aristocrats (2021). For Jun MURAKAMI, it is another significant supporting role, here as a brutal gangster boss. He was the Bicycle Man in Hideaki ANNO's artsy psychodrama Ritual (2000).