[3][4] O-Ren, O-Some and Chieko are the daughters of a hardened, middle-aged woman who runs a business of shamisen players, earning their money on their nightly rounds in bars in Asakusa.

While O-Some still works in her mother's business, Chieko, her younger sister, is a nightclub dancer.

O-Ren, the eldest, tries to settle for a domestic life with her boyfriend Kosugi in an attempt to escape the half-world she has been associated with.

In need of money, O-Ren lures Aoyama (unaware that he is Chieko's boyfriend) into an apartment, where her gangster friends threaten him.

Although she knows of O-Ren's scheme, O-Some bids her sister and Kosugi good-bye at the train station.