The Red Spectacles 1987

In the 20th century, Tokyo faces a surge of crime that even the police struggle to contain. In response, the city’s police force creates an extreme, heavily armed unit called the Anti Vicious Crime Heavily Armored Mobile Special Investigations Unit, known as Kerberos, equipped with machine guns and reinforced gear to wage a relentless war against crime and evil. At first, Kerberos appears to be successful, but as the 1990s approach, the unit’s zeal deteriorates into aggression, cruelty, and corruption. When a member beats a misdemeanor offender to death, public outrage erupts and the unit is disbanded. Three elite members—Koichi Todome, Shigeru Chiba, Midori Washio, Machiko Washio, and Soichirō Toribe, Hideyuki Tanaka—refuse to lay down their weapons and flee to the Port of Tokyo, planning to escape by helicopter. After fending off an ambush by bounty hunters, a gravely wounded Sōichirō and Midori urge Todome to take the helicopter alone, vowing that Todome will return for them.

Three years pass, and Todome, now a fugitive, returns to Tokyo only to find a city that has changed beyond recognition: decay spreads through the skyline, and everything feels dreamlike, surreal, and almost feelessly nondescript. He wanders in search of a past that no longer exists and of his fellow survivors, crossing paths with a mysterious young lady in red, as well as hitmen led by Bunmei Muroto, Tessyo Genda, and a crew of eccentric con artists known as tachiguishi, who pull off inexplicable schemes at street-level food stalls (tachigui) that violate the usual rules of order and decency. The encounters are strange, sometimes darkly humorous, and always disorienting, painting a Tokyo that looks familiar yet refuses to behave like the city Todome once knew.

As the narrative unfolds, the lines between dream and reality blur, and it becomes clear that most of what Todome experiences may be slipping away from the waking world. The film culminates in a stark, heartbreaking revelation: the events may be a dying dream, and Todome is killed soon after he returns to Tokyo, leaving the survivor’s tale unresolved and haunting.