Mind Game

Nishi, a 20-year-old NEET from Osaka, runs into his childhood crush Myon on a subway. She invites him to her family's yakitori restaurant, where he begins to glimpse a life beyond his isolation. The chance meeting sets the entire sequence of events in motion.

Myon brings Nishi to her family's yakitori restaurant and introduces him to her father, elder sister Yan, and her fiancé Ryo. Two yakuza, Atsu and Aniki, enter the scene seeking Myon's father. The encounter exposes Nishi to a world of threat and the fracture lines within Myon's life.

Atsu threatens Myon at gunpoint while Ryo attempts to intervene and is knocked unconscious. The tension escalates as Atsu makes clear his violent intent. Myon cries out for Nishi as the danger becomes personal.

Atsu turns the pistol on a terrified Nishi and fires when Nishi yells a threat. Nishi dies in front of Myon, Yan, and the stunned crowd. The scene marks a brutal end to Nishi's first chance at life.

The senior yakuza is offended by Atsu's lack of control and fatally shoots him. This marks a brutal pivot in the power dynamics around Myon and her family. The aftermath pushes Nishi's fate toward an otherworldly limbo.

Nishi wakes in a limbo where he is forced to watch his death over and over again. He is battered and insulted by Kami-sama, a being whose image shifts with every moment. Kami-sama reveals he created Nishi for his own entertainment.

Kami-sama directs Nishi toward a red portal, but Nishi asserts his will to live and runs toward the blue portal. Impressed by his resolve, Kami-sama lets him escape back to the living world. Nishi awakens prepared to face the moment he failed to act before.

Nishi returns to just before Atsu's gun is fired and uses the butt of Atsu's pistol to fatally shoot him. The act reroutes fate, and the four—Nishi, Myon, Yan, and Ryo—make a break for safety. They speed away in Atsu's car as the yakuza pursue them.

The boss drives the trio to a dead end on a bridge and they are forced onward, but Nishi steers the car off the bridge. The vehicle plummets and is swallowed by an enormous whale. Inside the whale, they realize survival will require adaptation.

Inside the whale, the group meets an old man who has lived there for decades and built a suspended house. Yan practices dancing and art, Myon resumes swimming, and Nishi returns to writing and drawing manga. The trio forms a fragile new family as they adjust to surreal prison life.

As water rises inside the whale, the old man explains the surface world may be reachable again. They gather spare parts and car fuel to construct a motor boat. The plan requires patience and teamwork as the environment becomes more hostile.

The whale returns to Osaka the day before the World Cup final, forcing the group to act. They succeed in escaping the whale and take to the air, leaving the pursuing yakuza behind. The sequence resets the opening scene as they finally break free.

The film returns to the very first subway scene with Myon running, but this time the yakuza are left behind. A lengthy montage follows, revealing the histories of the various characters. The credits roll as the phrase This Story Has Never Ended appears on screen.