In the early Meiji era, a whaling village on Hirado Island endures years of loss as men vanish into the maw of a colossal North Pacific right whale. The village elder, Takashi Shimura, presides over a grim bargain: the man who slays the Whale God will win land, title, and the elder’s daughter Toyo. The widow who raised her sons to avenge their father and grandfather’s deaths sees her elder son die in the hunt, while her younger son, Kōji Hongō as Shaki, rises to become a gifted whaler and the village’s chief harpooner.
From the start, Shaki’s path is marked by rivalry and stubborn faith in the Whale God. An outsider named Kishū from the Kishū region, Shintarō Katsu plays Kishū, and he challenges Shaki again and again as the villagers rally behind the familiar, unwavering belief that only the Whale God’s death can secure their future. Shaki refuses to see Kishū as a true rival, insisting that his only opponent is the Whale God itself, a stance that earns him both respect and sharp scrutiny from Toyo, who can't bear to see her own future decided by a whale hunt rather than a marriage.
Ei, a local peasant girl, is in love with Shaki, and Shiho Fujimura brings this quiet longing to the surface as jealousy grows when Toyo’s position in the elder’s eyes looks increasingly precarious. Ei’s feelings complicate the web of loyalties that bind the village, especially as Kishū’s presence unsettles the status quo. Ei’s life takes a drastic turn when Kishū rapes her, and she becomes pregnant with Shaki’s child, a baby girl or boy whose fate will soon collide with the fate of the Whale God.
The death of Shaki’s mother deepens his resolve, and a doctor friend who returns from Nagasaki urges him to leave the village with his sister to seek a safer future. Yet the birth of Ei’s child—Jaya—and Shaki’s decision to marry Ei after claiming the child as his own son intensify the village’s tensions. Toyo’s fury at the humiliation compounds the pressure on Shaki, while Kishū’s doubts about the baby’s paternity simmer beneath the surface. The moment arrives when a telegram bears the news of the Whale God’s imminent return, tightening the bonds of superstition and destiny around the villagers.
Ei’s confession arrives with the thunder of truth: Kishū is Jaya’s real father. Shaki, who had suspected as much since Kishū’s earlier confrontations with the whale, asks Ei for forgiveness for Kishū’s sake, and he reveals a willingness to share the burden of the truth. The fraught balance between duty, love, and the specter of tragedy becomes clear as Shaki lines up with the Whale God one last time, lying on the beach to commune with the enormous head that has been their quarry.
The hunt itself is a brutal, almost ritual event. The villagers surround the Whale God with nets and harpoons, and Kishū dives in to strike while the whale remains powerful. He is dragged under and drowns, his body tangled in the nets, his sacrifice starkly contrasted with Shaki’s stubborn courage. Shaki, though grievously wounded, closes in and finally slays the Whale God, and the villagers decapitate it, butcher it, and place the head on the shore as a stark symbol of their victory and their price.
With Shaki gravely injured, the elder promises to honor the bargain, but Shaki sees through the ritual to the madness it has fostered. Ei’s revelation about Jaya’s paternity weighs on him as he exhales his last breaths, urging forgiveness for Kishū and acknowledging the complexity of their intertwined fates. He gazes toward the Whale God’s head and, in a final, almost meditative moment, lies down on the sands to rest beside the fallen behemoth. A distant current carries Kishū’s body out to the sea, a brooding coda to a village that has been pulled between faith, ambition, and the unyielding pull of the sea.
