Endless Desire

Ten years after the Pacific War, Japan is in the midst of reconstruction, rationing, and rising black-market activity. The mid-1950s setting provides a tense backdrop for ex-soldiers and criminals colliding over a hidden morphine hoard. Loyalties and morality are strained as the city rapidly changes around the shelter and its basement lair.

The shelter sits beneath a butcher shop in a neighborhood that has been repurposed into a bustling shopping district after the war. The group rents an empty storefront above ground as they dig a tunnel to reach the basement beneath the shop, where the morphine stash lies hidden. The area reflects reconstruction-era Japan, where redevelopment and crime intersect in a fragile urban landscape.

💰 Greed

Greed drives the retrieval of the morphine and corrupts the group’s camaraderie. Each member tests loyalties as the stash becomes a currency of power. The pursuit exposes how desire for control can override trust and protectiveness. In the end, greed fuels betrayals and fatal choices.

🕳️ Desperation

Desperation pushes the group to risk everything, drilling through a city-block wall in a race against time to claim the morphine. The looming demolition and scarcity magnify the stakes, turning every action into a survival gambit. The claustrophobic atmosphere underscores how far people will go when options are stripped away.

⛈️ Betrayal

Betrayal threads through the relationships: Hashimoto’s widow Shima manipulates others and reveals hidden loyalties. Nakata’s secretive past as an intruder surfaces, complicating trust within the group. The climactic confrontations culminate in poison, murder, and a fatal drowning as the rain washes away the truth.