The film makes extensive use of flashbacks, cutting forward and backwards in a free-form multilayered structure, to illustrate how the past casts a shadow over the present.

[5] A young man in the guise of a salesman travels to an island and asks the ship’s captain, Nomoto, for lodging.

Otake, who kept cattle and goats in the island, was given charge of reforming juvenile delinquents and continued to brutalize Saburo.

Scenes of men beating children and one another are numerous, attacks are carried out with crutches, whips, and live eels, and Shinoda is keen to show this brutality in close ups.

Bruised and bloodied bodies contrast sharply with the physical beauty of the island’s greenery and the surrounding ocean.