Manhunt 1977

In Tokyo, a prosecutor named Morioka becomes the center of a bewildering accusation when both a woman and then a man claim theft at his residence. The stolen items turn up at Morioka’s own home, leaving him stunned and compelled to flee. His superiors respond with a firm demotion and a city-wide manhunt, assigning Detective Yamura from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to track him down. The chase quickly expands beyond a single crime, uncovering layers of deceit that stretch far from Morioka’s door.

Seeking safety and answers, Morioka follows a lead that takes him to Makami Village on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, where he discovers the body of one accuser’s spouse and a wedding photograph linking the two victims. After Morioka departs, the police zero in on the husband, Yokomichi Keiji, and trace him to a town called Kounogi in Hokkaido. There, they lay an ambush, but Morioka arrives just in time to slip away from the pursuing officers.

The forest becomes a perilous stage for Morioka as he threads through danger and chance. A tripwire connected to a shotgun is disarmed by him, and a later bear attack is repurposed into a life-or-death encounter with a woman who is stranded up a tree. Morioka’s quick reflexes and wits help him survive the confrontation, but the bear blindsides him, sending him tumbling off a cliff and into a river. A young woman named Mayumi rescues him and nurses him back to health at her family home, where she learns Morioka’s cover story—he’s been calling himself Maeda.

Mayumi’s father, Tonami Yohinori, a political figure aiming to become governor, immediately senses Morioka’s potential value to his ambitions. Tonami’s son-in-law-like ally Nakayama attempts to influence the authorities, hoping to tilt Mayumi’s role in Tonami’s plan. Morioka, still a target, flees the family’s care when Mayumi’s loyalty is questioned and the authorities close in. Mayumi follows on horseback, aiding his escape and later confessing the full truth to Yamura when pressed by the police. The movie then pivots to a seaside shanty where Morioka hides under threat, compelled to return to Mayumi’s side as both are cornered.

A dangerous pursuit culminates in a dramatic cave hideout, where Tonami secretly helps Morioka by offering a private plane to reach Tokyo quickly in pursuit of Yokomichi. Tonami withdraws from the governor’s race and sends Mayumi toward Tokyo under the pretense of a business arrangement, setting the stage for Morioka’s desperate bid to unmask the deeper conspiracy.

Morioka’s journey continues with a treacherous journey to Tokyo, where a crash-landing on a sunlit beach near Mito allows him to slip past roadblocks and vanish into the woods. Exhaustion and illness follow him into the city, where an unknown woman recognizes him from the wanted posters and offers help. That night, Morioka is spotted again by police and driven into a fresh chase through crowded streets, only to be rescued once more by Mayumi, who arrives on horseback with a band of horses that rumbles through a shielded barricade and clears the path to safety.

The information landscape widens when Yamura visits Mayumi’s hotel and presents a medical record that suggests Yokomichi Keiji is being treated for paranoid schizophrenia under an alias, Suzuki Takeshi, in a mental hospital run by the Nagaoka Company. The hospital’s manager, Representative Ryosuke, is entwined with a larger corporate scheme, and the timing implicates him as Asakura’s death—an earlier suicide—unfolds within a web of extortion and questionable business dealings. The plot thickens as Tonan company’s influence—tied to animal testing purchases from Yokomichi—reveals a brutal mechanism behind the intimidation and manipulation at play.

In a bid to reclaim his freedom, Morioka and Mayumi decide to infiltrate the mental hospital by posing as husband and wife, hoping to secure his release or, at minimum, to unearth the truth. The ruse is risky: the hospital’s vice president, Doctor Doto, recognizes Morioka and is quick to taunt him with the sight of Yokomichi, now quieted by heavy sedation. Doto’s plan is to hold Morioka in the system as a perpetual patient, using the hospital’s authority to erase him from the world outside.

The stakes heighten as Ryosuke’s presence in the hospital is used to demonstrate the hospital’s dangerous drug experiments. The sedative, known as AX, is presented as a brain-altering chemical that can strip away free will and render patients obedient to commands. The demonstration is chilling in its brutality: a patient is commanded to wound himself, an act that betrays the drug’s terrifying potential. Morioka’s resolve hardens as he remains able to spit out the pills he’s forced to swallow, and he seizes a moment to turn the tables by foreshadowing that Asakura’s jump was engineered by a drugged manipulation supplied by Nagaoka.

As the hospital drama unfolds, Morioka, Yamura, and Hosoi confront Ryosuke and his circle. They arrange to arrest his people and block Ryosuke’s attempt to flee to South Korea with a case full of cash. The confrontation escalates to a violent stillness on a rooftop, where Morioka and Yamura shoot Ryosuke in what they claim is self-defense, after a tense standoff and a reversal that reveals the extent of the manipulation surrounding them. The General Prosecutor endorses the decision in public but cautions that Morioka’s own path will still require accountability on some charges.

In the end, Morioka resigns from the prosecutor’s office, arguing that some criminals are beyond the reach of the law and that justice requires a different approach. Yamura recognizes this new reality and leaves the door open—an invitation for Morioka to seize another chance at escape if law itself cannot save him. The film closes on a stark note: Morioka chooses a life on the run with Mayumi, who accepts this new future and vows to stay by his side, ready to endure whatever comes next as they move through a world where truth is rare and the pursuit of it is perilous.

The journey is driven by a sense of moral ambiguity, with Morioka’s evolution from government functionary to a figure who believes that some battles cannot be won within the bounds of law alone. The story unfolds with relentless momentum, alternating between tense cityscape pursuits and the more intimate, perilous landscapes of rural Japan. Throughout, the emotional core rests on Morioka’s relationship with Mayumi, the fragile trust that sustains them, and the growing realization that the cycle of crime and power may require a resolve beyond standard criminal justice. The film leaves viewers with a quiet, unresolved question: what happens when the line between law and survival blurs beyond recognition, and who will stand in the way when the world’s machinery of power continues to grind forward?