Manhunt 1976

Morioka, Ken Takakura, a prosecutor in Tokyo, is suddenly accused of theft by both a woman and a man. The stolen items turn up at his home, leaving him perplexed, and he bolts out through the bathroom window. His superior immediately suspends him and a citywide manhunt is launched, with detective Yamura Yoshio Harada leading the pursuit.

In a bid to clear his name, Morioka traces one accuser to Makami Village on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, only to discover that she is dead. Among her belongings he finds a wedding photo that also features the other accuser. After Morioka departs, the police uncover the body and trace the husband, Yokomichi Keiji Kunie Tanaka, back to a town in Hokkaido, where an ambush is set. Morioka arrives and manages a narrow escape from the ensuing chase.

While moving through the forest, Morioka spots a tripwire tied to a shotgun, which he disarms, then uses the situation to deter a bear that is attacking a woman stranded up a tree. The bear rams Morioka off a cliff into a river, but the woman, Mayumi Tonami Ryoko Nakano, rescues him and tends his wounds at her family home. Morioka introduces himself as Maeda, but Mayumi’s father, Tonami Yoshinori Hideji Ôtaki, a man intent on a governor’s race, instantly recognizes him as Morioka and offers help.

Tonami’s assistant Nakayama phones the police in the hopes of assisting Tonami’s political ambitions, prompting Morioka to disappear again. Mayumi tracks him on horseback and confirms to Yamura what she did. The authorities corner the pair at a seaside shanty, where Yamura forces them back toward Mayumi’s home at gunpoint. A bear attack and a clawing complicate the scene, but Morioka drags the wounded Yamura back to safety and even cauterizes the wound with a burning branch. Yamura insists on arresting Morioka, but Morioka overpowers the exhausted officer and escapes with Mayumi to a cave hideout. Mayumi’s father locates them and offers Morioka his private plane to hasten a return to Tokyo in pursuit of Yokomichi. Tonami withdraws from the governor’s race and sends Mayumi to Tokyo under the pretense of a business deal.

Morioka crashes ashore on a beach near Mito, slips past police roadblocks on a truck, and makes his way into the woods toward Tokyo. He falls ill and is tended to by an unknown woman who recognizes him from wanted posters. The next night, Morioka is spotted again in Tokyo and chased through crowded streets until Mayumi arrives on horseback, leading a pack of horses that charges through a shield wall set by the police.

The following day Yamura arrives at Mayumi’s hotel and shows Morioka a medical file stating Yokomichi is in a mental hospital, treated for paranoid schizophrenia under the alias Suzuki Takeshi. The hospital, he explains, is operated by the Nagaoka Company owned by Representative Nagaoka Ryosuke [Kō Nishimura]. Ryosuke was in talks with Asakura before Asakura’s alleged suicide, a detail Morioka never trusted. The hospital’s other connections involve Tonan, which had extorted money from Asakura and also bought guinea pigs from Yokomichi.

Morioka and Mayumi escape again, and Yamura’s superior rebukes him for negotiating with suspects. The pair drive to the mental hospital and pose as Mayumi’s husband, getting Morioka admitted. The doctor, Doto, recognizes Morioka and taunts him by showing Yokomichi in a sedated state. Doto drugss Morioka as well and imprisons him as a schizophrenic under the name Tsuyama, refusing to release him to Mayumi. Morioka quietly pockets some of the sedatives when Mayumi visits and slips one to her for Yamura.

Representative Ryosuke visits the hospital and witnesses a demonstration of the sedative AX, which blocks the will and makes patients obedient to commands. A patient who once led protests against Ryosuke’s company is made to stab himself, illustrating the drug’s power. Morioka, who has been vomiting up his pills, is told to write a suicide note, then is taken to a rooftop and ordered to jump. Instead, Morioka explains that Asakura’s supposed suicide was influenced by drugs from Nagaoka, and the orderlies attempt to strangle him as Yamura and Hosoi arrive. Doto flees, leaps from the roof, and dies, while Sakai, Ryosuke’s assistant, is found dead by suicide.

Morioka, Yamura, and Hosoi confront Ryosuke as he tries to fly to South Korea with a suitcase full of dollars. Morioka asserts that Ryosuke knew Asakura’s coercion and had Yokomichis halted, and that Ryosuke’s men would be jailed the next day. When Ryosuke attempts to flee, Yamura pistol-whips him but Morioka and Yamura shoot to defend themselves, a self-defense claim that the General Prosecutor ultimately accepts, though Morioka will still face some charges. Morioka concedes that some criminals cannot be fought purely with law, and he chooses to abandon the prosecutor’s role. Yamura warns him there will be another chance to escape when arrested, and Morioka exits to meet Mayumi, agreeing to live on the run with her for the rest of their days.