Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita • 1949 • Japan

Iemon Tamiya is an impoverished masterless samurai who craves a better life, which he cannot have because of his marriage to Oiwa, who is completely devoted to her husband. She, in turn, is the object of a deadly, obsessive love of a criminal, Kohei, who has recently been released from prison. And all three find themselves manipulated by another ex-prisoner, Naosuke, who plans to place Iemon in a position to be blackmailed.