Black Lizard

Shobei Iwase Jun Usami is a careful jeweler whose daughter Sanae Iwase Kikko Matsuoka earns her living as a hostess at a club. When Mrs. Midorikawa [Akihiro Miwa] visits Sanae and introduces her to Yamakawa, a young businessman from Tokyo, the drama begins to unfold behind dim hotel lights. Their visit to Yamakawa’s room to inspect a wedding doll ends in a brutal moment: Sanae is chloroformed and stuffed into a trunk, a shocking act that sets the entire mystery in motion.

Detective Akechi Isao Kimura greets the case with calm reason. He dissects the surface story and reveals that Yamakawa is actually Junichi Amamiya Yūsuke Kawazu, a brooding man who has been ensnared by Black Lizard Akihiro Miwa into orchestrating Sanae’s kidnapping. Akechi’s first hunch proves right as he sends trusted men to shadow Amamiya, and Sanae is recovered in due course. The detective’s quick deductions lift the veil on a far darker manipulation behind the glittering exterior of this urban underworld.

As the pieces fall into place, Akechi confronts a chilling truth: Mrs. Midorikawa is actually Black Lizard in disguise, a master of disguise who slips through the hotel’s surveillance by donning men’s clothes. The revelation heightens the tension, turning a conventional abduction into a game of cat and mouse across glittering rooms and shadowed stairwells. The plan to bargain Sanae back to her father hinges on a priceless gem—the Star of Egypt—an enormous South African jewel that Iwase cherishes and guards with almost religious care.

Sanae’s safety becomes a fragile thread as trouble oozes from every corner. Sanae is ordered to remain in her room at her father’s house, yet the household becomes a new theater for danger. Hina Toshiko Kobayashi, the home’s housekeeper, conspires with others to seize Sanae again, and Iwase’s guard Matoba Kō Nishimura steps into the fray, only to lose a hand in a brutal failure of protection—the violence marking the home as a site of betrayal and fear. Blood stains the sofa, and the Iwase household must contend with the unsettling intrusion of crime into domestic life.

To make the exchange work, Black Lizard sends a note promising Sanae’s return in exchange for the Star of Egypt. Iwase complies, bringing the gem to New Shinonome pier at noon on August 4, only to be met with a chilling lie: Sanae will be returned that night, but not to the man she calls father; instead, she slips away into Black Lizard’s hands aboard a ship bound for a private island. The cunning thief’s lair is revealed in turn: a secluded island where Black Lizard presents a startling collection of human bodies, perfectly preserved as statues, a gallery that chillingly reflects the thief’s obsession with control and possession.

On the island, Junichi Amamiya dares a desperate escape attempt, only to be caught and imprisoned with Sanae. There, Sanae asserts a startling truth: she is a woman named Yoko Sakurayama, hired to be Sanae’s double. Junichi, who allowed himself to be captured so he could be transformed into one of Black Lizard’s dolls and stay with her forever, confesses his plan and, in a turn of fate, the two young people find a forbidden, fragile love that blossoms even under the shadow of danger. The story leans into intimate emotions amid the macro-scale intrigue, giving their bond a poignant, almost tender counterpoint to the cruel spectacle around them.

Back in the world beyond the island, a newspaper article confirms Sanae’s “return” to her father, infuriating Black Lizard and spurring a final clash of wits. Akechi, revealed in full, calls the police and confronts Black Lizard directly. He frees Junichi and Yoko, allowing them to escape together to pursue a life beyond this perilous chase. Yet the tension does not vanish with their departure. A dramatic confrontation unfolds back at the house: Hina tries to unleash a poisonous snake toward Akechi, but Black Lizard steps in with lethal precision, impaling Hina with a sword as she makes a last bid for control, then sprinting away to her room in a fury that mirrors the endgame of the chase.

The last, devastating twists seal Black Lizard’s fate. Akechi reveals that the caller of death—the killer of the real Matsukichi—was none other than Black Lizard herself, who had used clever deception, poison, and ritualized performance to sustain her power. As the poison takes hold, the thief’s bravado collapses, and her malevolent spectacle ends in tragedy. The island’s drama, the family’s heartbreak, and the detective’s quiet triumph converge in a somber, definitive finale that leaves Sanae, Junichi, and Yoko free to write their own futures, unbound by the thief’s designs.

In this tale of glamour and menace, the lines between performance and reality blur. The jewel-laden rooms, the shipboard chases, and the eerie tableaux of statues form a lush but lethal stage where every character must confront desire, fear, and the consequences of deception. The film unspools with a patient pace that rewards careful listening, rewarding viewers who follow the thread from the club’s glittering hostesses to the island’s macabre gallery and back to the quiet, fragile hope of love that can endure even when the world seems to collapse around it.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 12:32