Peanuts

Peanuts

Year: 1996

Runtime: 87 mins

Language: Japanese

Director: Takashi Miike

Two mysterious tough guys infuriate a local gang after helping an elderly grocery store owner with his debts by robbing a yakuza organised gambling den.

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Peanuts (1996) – Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained

Read the complete plot breakdown of Peanuts (1996), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.

Two mysterious tough guys, Ryuji Hoshikawa Riki Takeuchi and Kyotaro Ochiai Hiroshi Katsuno, win money at the track but have some of their winnings swindled by Tetsu, a member of the Hyakkikai posing as a car dealer. When elderly fish seller Mr. Makimura cannot pay his debts to the Hyakkikai, he jumps in front of a car driven by Ryuji and Kyotaro. The pair stop just in time, and in a bold move they help him by robbing a Hyakkikai gambling den and giving Makimura most of the money to help settle his debt.

Kurogane Mitsuko, the formidable head of the Kurogane gang that controls the Hyakkikai, bribes detective Mr. Yabe to investigate the robbery and goes further by having the pinky of Mr. Gori, the Hyakkikai boss, cut off. Yet Gori struggles to repay all of the stolen money, and the tension within the criminal world intensifies as debts mount. When two Hyakkikai prostitutes drug Ryuji and Kyotaro and try to seize the rest of their money, the two men demand compensation and storm into the Hyakkikai offices, where they beat up Mr. Gori, Tetsu, and the other members.

Kurogane’s daughter Yukari faces her own conflict: she has a child with a Black man named George and insists on staying with him, despite her father’s orders to end the relationship. To resolve the situation, Kurogane assigns his underboss Takakura to kill George. Takakura then enlists the businessman Mr. Fukuda to squeeze a large debt from Yukichi Sugiyama in Ginza, and Sugiyama hires Ryuji and Kyotaro to carry out the heavy-handed collection.

Meanwhile, Kyotaro’s office connection leads to Mary, Makimura’s daughter, answering the phone, and Kyotaro sends her roses at work, where she repels advances from her section chief, Mr. Sugiyama. Mr. Yabe continues to connect Ryuji and Kyotaro to Makimura, and he informs Takakura that he suspects the two men of the earlier robbery. The situation escalates when Gori catches Kyotaro and beats him, only for Kyotaro to fight back, overpower him, and kill Gori along with his henchman.

A fateful encounter occurs at a diner near a grave—Kyotaro meets Muto, a loyal enforcer for Kurogane, who reveals that he is the man whose brother was murdered by a rival gang. The tension tightens as Sugiyama smuggles drugs during trips abroad, prompting Mary and Ryuji to swap his bag for another and bring the drugs to Fukuda to settle the debt.

Yabe’s investigation narrows the net to Kyotaro, who is linked to the killing of Muto’s brother, prompting Takakura to kidnap Sugiyama and Mary to draw him in. Kurogane then commands Kyotaro to kill George to wipe the slate clean. Instead, Kyotaro chooses to help George escape with Yukari, kills Muto, and escapes with Ryuji and the two former Hyakkikai prostitutes, marking a tense but climactic turn in a web of debts, betrayals, and shifting loyalties.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 11:10

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