Branded to Kill

Goro Hanada and his wife Mami fly into Tokyo where they meet Kasuga, a former hitman turned taxi driver. They travel to a club owned by yakuza boss Michihiko Yabuhara, and Kasuga pitches Hanada on returning to the underworld. Yabuhara ultimately hires Hanada to escort a client to Nagano, setting the plot in motion.

While escorting the client, Hanada spots an ambush and dispatches several gunmen. Kasuga attacks Koh, the fourth-ranked hitman, and both Kasuga and Koh are killed in the exchange. Hanada continues with the client but the danger is far from over.

Hanada leaves the client to secure Koh's car, then hears three gunshots in quick succession. He rushes back to find the client safe, while three more ambushers have been shot through the forehead. The body count keeps climbing as the escort ride unfolds.

In another ambush, Hanada kills additional gunmen and sets Sakura, the second-ranked hitman, on fire. The client shoots Sakura dead, marking another brutal turn in Hanada's dangerous mission. The violence compounds as they press onward.

Hanada's car breaks down and Misako offers him a ride. At home, he and Mami share rough, ritualized sex fueled by his peculiar rice-smell fetish, revealing a dark, intimate side of his life. The night hints at deeper madness beneath the surface.

Yabuhara hires Hanada to kill a customs officer, an ocularist, and a jeweller. Hanada completes each kill with precise method: sniping from a billboard lighter, destroying a target through a pipe drain, and breaking into an office before escaping on an advertising balloon. The sequence cements Hanada's lethal reputation while tightening Yabuhara's grip on him.

Misako offers Hanada a near-impossible contract to kill a foreigner. During the job, a butterfly lands on the rifle barrel, causing him to miss and accidentally kill a bystander instead. Misako warns that failure would cost him his rank and his life, heightening the peril surrounding him.

As Hanada prepares to depart Japan, he is shot by Mami, who then sets their apartment on fire. His belt buckle saves him, catching the bullet and sparing his life. The violent encounter forces him to reevaluate his relationships and future.

Back together, Hanada and Misako alternate between failed seductions and near-killings. She finally yields to his advances when he promises to kill her, hinting at a complicated, twisted affection beneath the violence.

Hanada confronts Mami when she tries to seduce him again and then claims Yabuhara paid her to kill him. He kills Mami, and later finds Yabuhara dead at his club, a bullet through his forehead marking the end of that web of deceit.

Back at Misako's apartment, a projected film reveals her bound and tortured, prompting Hanada to go to a breakwater where assassins await. He fights through them, killing the assassins and surviving the deadly encounter on the shore.

The former client surfaces as the legendary Number One Killer and agrees to a truce, allowing Hanada a respite. Number One moves in with him at the apartment, imposing a strict routine and a chilling sense of control over every moment.

Number One taunts Hanada and a taped confession reveals his method: exhaust his targets before striking. In a boxing ring, Number One shoots, but the headband on Hanada deflects the bullet and he returns fire, killing Number One. Misako unexpectedly enters the gym, Hanada shoots her dead, proclaims himself Number One, and then collapses from his injuries.