The Beast Shall Die

The film opens with detective Okada being ambushed and shot after leaving a bar with friends. The killer stuffs Okada's body into the trunk, then steals his car and later abandons it after switching to another vehicle to escape.

At Kanto University's accounts office, a fourth-year philosophy student with tuberculosis faces expulsion for unpaid dues. Date Kinhiko is introduced as the next in line, juggling coursework with translation work for Sugimura and the looming threat of failing.

While Date is with his girlfriend Teiko, a radio broadcast reports the officer's body found in the abandoned car. Investigators identify a similar .22-caliber bullet and a fingerprint, signaling the case is not yet closed and hinting at who might be involved.

Date impersonates a police officer and arrests Charlie Chen as he leaves a casino. He overpowers Chen's bodyguard, drives away in his own car, then knocks Chen unconscious and steals his bag of money. The escape increases Date's profile and danger.

Back at the shadows, Charlie Chen hires the hitman Yasu to recover the stolen money. The order to retrieve the cash intensifies the stakes as Date's deeds ripple through the criminal underworld.

Detective Masugi visits his fiancée at the bar Lolita, where cracks in their relationship become visible. Date engages in a provocative display by buying all the flowers and pressuring the bar's performer to drink, sing, and dance, drawing Masugi's watchful eye.

Sugimura notes that Date's translations are selling well and his paper 'The Brutality of Modern Human Beings' is well received. He mentions sending the Ridgeway Foundation essay to the contest, which could win Date a Harvard scholarship if successful.

Date meets the accounts office student at the movie hall as previously agreed; together they plan to rob the accounts office, linking their crime to Date's foreign-study ambitions and the Ridgeway contest.

That night, Date climbs to the research lab and plants dynamite. The student, in disguise, enters the accounts office; Date also enters during the commotion and kills a security guard. The student then kills everyone in the room, creating a brutal massacre.

Date and the student flee, hide the evidence, and Date drugs the student with sedatives while listening to police frequencies. They misread the police directions, nearly getting stopped at a checkpoint, but Date deceives the officers and keeps moving.

Date kills the student and dumps the car with the body into the sea, eliminating a key witness. Masugi and his colleague Kawashima conclude Date is the killer and push for an arrest warrant.

Date reaches the airport and boards a plane, having won the Ridgeway scholarship and escaped custody. Masugi watches and realises Date's victory; Teiko arrives with a bag of money but realizes the plane has departed and boards a bus, ending the film as the plane lifts off.