Synopsis
Susukino, Japan’s northernmost red-light district.
‘Detective’ (Yo Oizumi), the self-styled ‘Susukino Private Eye’ (or anything else that needs doing), along with his sidekick Takada (Ryuhei Matsuda), a very laid-back graduate student in Agriculture at Hokkaido University, makes his money taking on whatever dubious jobs come his way, and spends his nights carousing with his buddies in the bars. ‘Masako’ (Gori), a drag queen who works in ‘Tomboys Party’, a ‘show-pub’ that Detective frequents, enters a magician contest and, to everyone’s surprise, wins. Two days later, however, she is found beneath a pile of garbage, brutally murdered.
What looks like an easy investigation turns out after three months to have gone nowhere. Interest in the case flags, and Detective himself, having fallen in love, disappears from the night life of Susukino. Soon, however, his amorata dumps him, he returns to his senses, and is once more back on the scene. Determined to uncover the murderer of his close friend, he and Takada finally go into action, but now that he is back, his friends seem curiously reticent to talk to him. Matsuo (Tomorowo Taguchi), a reporter he has known for many years, tells him of the rumor that a powerful Hokkaido politician named Koichiro Tokiwaki (Atsuro Watabe) might have been involved in Masako’s death. Tokiwaki is known as a man who swings both ways, and in days gone by he and Masako were lovers.
Detective is dubious of Matsuo’s suggestion that Masako has been murdered because her new-found fame would have thrown a pall over an upcoming election, but there is something that comes to mind. However Matsuo, strangely, warns him off the case. ‘Don’t stick your nose into this. Politics is a lot more dangerous than you think.’
This, however, is by no means going to put Detective off a case. He begins to follow a strangely dressed woman. Realizing she is being tailed, she turns on him. She is Yumiko Kawashima (Machiko Ono). A famously beautiful violinist, she is also an outspoken ‘Kansaijin’, a native of the Osaka area. She eats like a horse, as well. Masako was a huge fan of hers, and a good friend. Yumiko is not impressed by Detective’s assertion that he is going to catch the villain who killed Masako, but he turns on the charm and she ends up as his client. As it turns out, Yumiko is under heavy fire from the media for some thoughtless remarks she has made.
With Yumiko, Detective and Takada get down to serious investigation, but when Tokiwaki’s name inadvertently comes into the conversation, even Detective’s yakuza friend Soda (Yutaka Shigematsu) looks guarded, and our hero suffers a number of indignities, including being beaten up by a mysterious gang of masked men. He and Takada are even accused of having kidnapped Yumiko, on whom a missing persons report has been filed after she disappeared from public view. As they are starting to feel that Susukino is becoming too dangerous for them, the owner of Tomboys Bar, Flora (Eisuke Sasai), informs them that Masako’s best friend, a gay man named Toru, has vanished. In Takada’s beat-up old wreck of a car, Detective, Takada, and Yumiko head for Muroran, Toru’s home town. They have started out on a dangerous journey.
Finding Toru alive and well in Muroran, they learn some important information about Masako and the sad circumstances of her background. Detective is infuriated by her treatment at the hands of Tokiwaki and his group.
Knowing for sure now that Tokiwaki was involved, the three resolve to go back to Susukino, but still pursuing them is a group led by Sayama (Kazuki Namioka), a thug whose connections with Detective go way, way back. Following an intense gun battle and car chase, the three are rescued by being taken into custody by the police.
Now Detective resolves to go directly to Tokiwaki. Their first conversation, however, is a surprise. ‘I wish I could have always kept on seeing things the way you do.’
What is the astonishing truth that remains hidden?
And will ‘Detective’ be able to protect his client?
‘A detective has to protect his client...unfortunately.’