- We follow Kamon Ryo through an average day: he plays guitar at the club Eclipse, he sells his body, he's stalked by various people, he has a screaming brain attack, and he visits his disabled sister in a state facility.
- It is 1975. Nonomura Shuuji and Hinatsu Eiko are riding in her cute little green sports car. Nonomura arranges that she will meet a particularly sexy male prostitute later that night - a prostitute that Nonomura himself is in love with, and that he says she'll definitely fall in love with too.
We cut to that prostitute, Kamon Ryo, waking up and doing his morning routine around his apartment. He takes a pill out of a package of medication, digs through the pockets of all his pants to find that all his money comes to a handful of spare change, and ominously declares to his wall calendar that there are "188 more days". This is inter-cut with various people talking about him. Ryo's disabled sister is waiting for him in a state facility, since he "has a duty" to come and see her every week, but this week, he's late. Fumiyo tells her sickly husband Hachimura, the owner of a mechanic shop, that Ryo is back in town, and Hachimura becomes very excited.
Ryo leaves his dilapidated, graffiti'd apartment and goes into the city of Yokohama to a doctor's appointment. The doctor has an X-ray of his skull up and there is a visible mass. The doctor repeatedly asks for his next of kin but Ryo is an orphan with no relatives and his sister is only 17. The doctor writes "brain tumor (gliobastoma)" on Ryo's patient sheet but tells him it's only a minor medical issue, and gives him some painkillers. The doctor and his nurse confer and agree that the tumor will kill him within a year, but don't know what to do.
Ryo goes wandering around and playing in Yokohama junkyards, like riding on the skeleton of a blown-out motorcycle. But he notices a creepy mustached middle-aged man (Shirato) in a suit smashing some lights, which makes him uncomfortable, and he leaves. When he goes to cross the street, he suddenly clutches his head and has a seizure in the intersection as the word "gliobastoma" is layered over the screen.
At the club Eclipse, Nonomura the pimp is slapping around some of his girls. The club bouncer calms him down. Nonomura goes to get a drink when Ryo comes in with blood on his face. The bouncer cries out and tries to gently lead Ryo to a seat, but is physically thrown away by Nonomura, who starts caressing Ryo and trying to figure out who "kicked his ass". Ryo claims some random gangsters just beat him for no reason, but Nonomura insists that is impossible because "everyone in town knows you're mine", but Ryo stubbornly won't tell him the truth. Nonomura is Sad that Ryo won't confide in him but silently writes the address of Ryo's trick - Eiko - on a paper coaster. Ryo looks disgusted, so Nonomura tells him not to do the job, but Ryo says he will.
Suddenly, the creepy junkyard man fights his way into the bar, sending the bouncer and a couple random gangsters of Nonomura flying. Nonomura identifies him as "one hell of a cop" and sends everyone away. Ryo hides in the back room and the bouncer is sent to get "the usual amount". Nonomura and the cop, Shirato, start a subtext-laden conversation.
Shirato has been a cop for 36 years and was called the "Demon Cop", with many commendations, but only recently was promoted to Inspector, largely because of his failure to find the 300 million yen thief of 1968. The statute of limitations on the theft is running out this December (1975). They've put him on the low-grade vice beat to punish him for his failure to catch the criminal for years. Shirato demands more money since he's found out that Nonomura is "not only running girls, but also drugs". This is surprising, since Nonomura used to be a much more high-ranking and commended cop, despite being significantly younger -- and investigating the same 300 million yen case. But 6 years ago (1969), he was forced to resign after illegal arrests and police brutality under his watch. Now he is a powerful and rich gangster.
Shirato offers to return Nonomura's bribe and stop shaking him down if Nonomura will help him find the 300 million yen thief, but Nonomura flatly refuses. Shirato starts to leave, saying that he'll expect a double bribe from now on, and suddenly kicks down the door to the back room where Ryo had been hiding - but Ryo is gone. Shirato leaves the bar, and Ryo wanders out of the back room, denying that he was eavesdropping on them. Ryo also starts to leave, almost forgetting his hat, but Nonomura frisbees it across the room onto Ryo's head. Ryo says he is going to "be fucked by the cow" (the client tonight). Outside the club, Shirato is lurking, pretending to do a crossword; Ryo ducks into an abandoned store next door and avoids being noticed.
At the hotel, Ryo and Eiko eye each other. She says she's better than the usual cow, but Ryo is only interested in his fee. He strips for her lacklusterly, takes off her clothes, and flops on top of her. She says he's "cute; why, it's almost like [he's] shaking", and demands to be kissed on the ear, but then pulls him back forcefully by the hair to show him a rose-like birthmark on her thigh that gets red when she becomes aroused. His face is entirely blank.
At the club, Nonomura is getting sad-angry-drunk at the bar, as the girls and other various employees go home for the night. Ryo is just arriving home. Hachimura is lurking near his door, hidden from Ryo's view. Ryo finds a package on his front step with no address. He tosses it on the bed and starts lazily pulling it apart, but it's just slightly smaller boxes within boxes.
The phone rings, and Ryo continues unpacking as he talks. It's Nonomura, and he wants to phone-sex with Ryo. He starts taking off his shirt. Ryo says he's tired. Nonomura starts pressing him for details about the job. He knows about Eiko's pink birthmark, and her ear kisses. Nonomura starts laughing. Ryo asks who she is, but Nonomura just demands to know whether Ryo has fallen in love with her.
Just at that moment, Ryo finally gets to the final layer of the package, and finds a curled-up poster inside: a poster of the police sketch of the 300 million yen thief. Alarmed, he drops the phone. Nonomura thinks that Ryo hung up because he fell in love with Eiko, and screams and throws the phone at his bar, smashing glasses. Ryo kicks the poster and boxes, flailing on his bed and throwing darts at another poster he has on his ceiling of the thief, muttering "Who sent it? Who sent it?"
The next day, Shirato is lurking outside Hachimura's motor shop. Ryo goes to the club early, but notices a lady skulking nearby and peeking at him from under her umbrella. He recognizes her -- it's Fumiyo, Hachimura's wife. He beats her up and drags her to his filthy apartment, screaming and demanding to know what Hachimura wants with him. She insists she has no idea what he's talking about.
Ryo and Fumiyo start changing out of their wet clothes and Ryo throws her a towel. He starts taking off her shirt and says that he "alway liked her" and tries to rape her, but immediately has a brain attack and falls over screaming. She helps get the medicine into him and he says that his mysterious illness is causing behavioral changes, but the doctor says it's no big deal and he'll be cured soon. Fumiyo decides that she likes Ryo after all, and they have consensual sex. She promises to keep everything a secret from her husband.
Later, at the club, Ryo is getting ready to go on stage. The local homeless girl Nono appears and surprises him. She is mentally disabled and asks him to buy her make-believe flowers for just a few yen each; Ryo patiently pays up. The bouncer walks in and starts yelling at Nono that she's not allowed on the premises and accidentally pushes her too hard and frightens her.
Ryo goes out to relax before his set, and Fumiyo's on the phone for him. Shirato arrested her husband Hachimura for no apparent reason. Ryo says not to call him at this number and hangs up. Shirato comes in and Ryo performs his set - Ryo's actor Sawada "Julie" Kenji's real 1975 mega-hit, "Toki no Sugiyuku Mama ni" (As Time Goes By). As Ryo performs, he observes Shirato and Nonomura standing together, staring at him.
Text flashes across the screen: 187 days until the statute of limitations runs out on the 300 million yen case.
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Episode #1.1 (1975) in Australia?
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