I've been wondering. Are you really his sister?
Yes. Why?
The samisen.
I used to be a gozé.
I became one in Echigo as a child.
He was away from me then.
Since we met again, we've been traveling together.
Don't be frank with him.
Why not? Mr. Bessho is kind to me.
You can't tell.
Beware of men.
Keep away.
Keep away? But his stand is next to ours.
I think you should be nice to your neighbors.
Don't get so familiar with him.
Familiar? No!
He's laughing at us.
I envy you.
You can sell your old drug as brand-new medicine.
No!
You call plain fabric silk.
You buy rabbits, and sell both the meat and the fur.
Soldiers need them.
I'll do it. too.
When the war ends. you can't sell them.
No good business for the poor.
Permission?
Where are you going, brother?
He went to the gangsters who control this place.
He needs their permission.
Cover your things before they get wet.
It won't stop raining. I'll go back to the inn.
Your brother will return to the inn in this rain.
The shirt dealer got information.
Tsurukawa was arrested.
Why?
The gangsters took him to the temple.
They argued and fought.
Tsurukawa is a big man. He injured the gangsters.
So the police arrested him?
That's right.
Keep it a secret.
Or Orin will be worried.
We're unlucky.
Any news about my brother?
No. He'll be back.
I heard he was arrested.
Gozé have good ears.
It was just a fight with hoodlums. Not serious.
I hope so.
I wonder if he really considers you his sister.
Why?
The shirt dealer told me.
He saw Tsurukawa at the post office in town
making a remittance.
His mother or family must be alive.
He has no family.
He said his parents are dead.
"He said?"
Then you aren't his sister.
You're his woman.
He never made love to me.
He's been in jail for days. It wasn't just a fight.
Maybe he was a criminal.
Don't speak ill of him.
You're a fool.
Someday he'll desert you. And you'll be old.
This is your chance.
When you're old, it'll be too late.
You'll have to die alone on the road.
You'd better come with me and start a new business.
I don't mind sleeping in deserted huts.
I don't need nice clothes.
I can't go with you, Bessho. I'll wait for my brother.
Can you be patient? Living with him that way?
Sometimes you hunger for a man's touch, don't you?
We're brother and sister. I'm happy and content.
I'm no longer a gozé.
It'll be a long wait.
I'm not a slut.
I was expelled from the group.
But my brother made me an ordinary woman.
I see. I've said my piece.
I'll be going.
Thank you for taking care of me.
You've been kind. Thank you.
Don't do that. Bessho.
I've been depending on your kindness.
Don't betray my trust.
Nobody's around. Your man is with the police.
Just this once. Nobody will know.
Wait.
I'll prepare myself.
Goodbye.
Don't tell my brother that you took me. Never!
If he knows. I'll have to kill myself.
If he's your brother, he won't punish you for this.
But I won't tell anybody.
Never.
Brother!
Did you see it? Did you?
The druggist?
Bessho?
Don't be angry with him.
He wasn't to blame. It was my fault.
Forgive me!
Orin. How thoughtless you are!
You slept with a man.
You violated our rules.
You're expelled.
This is an important party.
You're disgracing our group of gozé.
Go away!
Get on.
No. I want to stay here alone.
Alone?
We didn't meet here.
I hit Bessho, the druggist.
I hit the gangsters.
They want revenge.
I don't want you to be molested. Let's part.
I'll find you when things are settled.
We'll meet again.
Where are you going?
South. To Wakasa Province.
I'll be waiting for you.
You go south, too.
Not north.
It's Bessho.
The druggist.
Who?
A gozé?
You. too?
Are you entirely blind?
I can see things vaguely on sunny days.
Where from?
Nagaoka.
Expelled? When?
Three years ago. Were you expelled, too?
The villagers want me to sing for them.
Can I leave my things here?
Orin?
I'm the police. Name's Imanishi.
I have some questions.
Is Senzo Tsurukawa your brother?
While he was away with the police,
whom did you meet on the beach?
Bessho.
Bessho. the druggist?
You walked with him along the beach.
What did you do after that?
I returned to the inn.
To see Senzo?
No.
Why not?
He was released that day.
I returned to the inn, but
my brother had checked out.
He took the cart with him.
I went back to the beach. but he wasn't there.
Why didn't he look for me?
Where is he now? Tell me.
I don't know.
Where is he? What is he doing at sunset like this?
Can you see?
I can tell by the smell of the air.
Let me introduce Detective Imanishi.
I'm Military Police Lieutenant Hakamada.
One of the men standing...
...PFC Heitaro Iwabuchi.
We can't identify him by this picture.
So we made his description.
He deserted.
When?
April. 1917.
Two years ago.
The number of deserters and draft-dodgers is increasing.
They don't like going to Siberia.
Does Tsurukawa. who killed the druggist, look...
...like the deserter named Iwabuchi?
We trailed him to Niigata, then lost him.
He's around here.
Then the murder.
Tsurukawa is nearly six feet tall.
He stammers and is tanned.
The same man.
I questioned the peddlers who were with him.
He left the inn saying he'd go north.
But he didn't. We lost him.
Maybe he was afraid of being identified.
Then, he must be the deserter.
I'll show this description to the landlady of the inn.
The investigation should be as a search for Tsurukawa
as a suspect in the murder of the druggist.
It's a secret that he's a deserter.
It's shame to the Imperial Army.
There's somebody else.
My friend.
You said you were alone. You want to cheat me?
Never mind. I'll be going.
Thank you.
He's my customer. Forgive me.
Blind?
Can't see anything.
What's your hurry?
My friend kindly excused herself.
Leave some money.
Are you asleep, gozé?
What is it?
What do you want?
I have a request.
What is it?
This girl is my granddaughter.
She was born blind.
Her father died in Korea, and her mother fell ill.
She died last spring.
This girl became an orphan.
I have to take care of her. But I won't live long.
I can't ask strangers to raise her.
I don't know what to do.
I heard you played the samisen at the inn.
My husband left some money for me.
Please make this girl a gozé like you.
I can't accept your money.
Please take care of her.
But, as you see, we're lone traveling gozé.
All we can do is write a letter to a group leader.
Please!
Put your hands together.
Let's go to your mother.
Pray to Buddha.
Trouble?
What is it?
Are you gozé?
That's right.
Two persons were drowned.
One is a blind girl.
The other is a gray-haired old woman.
They jumped off the cliff.
Why did they have to die? You tried to help them.
You were going to write a letter of introduction.
But I didn't say I'd take care of the girl.
The old woman was weak.
I was expelled. All I could do was write a letter.
Who is it?
The police. Tell me. Are you the mistress?
Yes. Name's Teruyo.
Who is the other gentleman?
This is a detective from Fukui.
Really? You came from Fukui?
A long way from Fukui.
We want to know where Orin is.
What did she do?
She did nothing wrong.
We're after the man traveling with her.
She left us nine years ago.
Hasn't she returned since?
Never.
I'd like to talk with her. too.
Where is she?
We lost her.
We trailed her to Toyama, but...
She's been missing since last year.
Where is her hometown?
Hometown?
She came from Obama in Wakasa.
Orin!
Who?
A clog dealer.
Orin, you know him?
Brother!
It's you, Orin!
I thought you'd come here.
I've been working here waiting for you.
I wanted to see you.
Orin. Be happy.
The police are after you.
I had to see you.
I had to come.
Merciful Buddha let us be together again.
You're no brother to me now.
I was told I'd lived in a seaside hut.
Who knows?
But I still remember the sound of the sea.
Any sea sounds the same.
No. The sound I remember is very clear.
Even if it's true. the sound can change in thirty years.
Besides, there are trains and sirens.
You can't hear the sea.
I can, after everybody goes to sleep.
He looks exactly like the description.
That's right. The woman is a gozé.
They're passing our shop.
Is this the sea you remember?
Anything wrong?
It was a saber.
Saber? What about the saber?
The police.
Run!
Heitaro Iwabuchi?
You killed the druggist?
Confess!
Don't cry like a kid, deserter!
Orin's statement.
Blind and stubborn.
As long as you refuse to talk.
she'll be tortured as an accomplice.
Okay?
Bessho invited you. but you didn't go with him.
Because your man had been with the police.
You were worried so much you couldn't leave him.
Right?
That's right.
After the druggist started for the station.
you saw your man on the beach.
Tell us the truth.
I didn't see him. I'm blind.
Fool!
You're lying.
You said he was your brother. That was a lie.
He's a deserter.
"Deserter?" What does it mean?
He neglected his duty.
I'm blind. I don't know a thing about it.
I've never seen faces or hands.
You say "forest," but...
...I don't know exactly what it's like.
There are many things I don't know.
I can feel and smell things, but that's all.
Buddha leads me when I walk.
I can't understand you.
Don't get wise!
But I didn't see what I didn't see.
Somebody saw you and the man in the forest.
I didn't see my brother.
What I saw was his heart.
A warm heart full of kindness...
...like the one only a brother could have.
I killed him.
He raped Orin.
So I killed him.
I got drafted in place of the son of Ichibei Terada
a company president in Daishoji.
He paid me for it.
I did it for money.
You can dodge the draft...
...if you have money.
But poor men like me have to sell ourselves for money.
War sacrifices the poor.
I won't go to Siberia even if I get killed for it.
Is that all?
You're a murderer and deserter. No excuses.
I'm ready to be executed.
But before I die, let me see Orin.
The audacity!
Let him see her for the last time.
Orin. It's me.
I owe you an apology.
I lied to you.
I said I had no parents or family. I said I was alone.
It was a lie.
My mother is alive.
In Daishoji. I was born there.
She runs a clog shop there... alone.
I lied.
Forgive me.
Nothing to forgive. It's natural you have a mother.
I have one, too. I have a mother.
Mother!
Who...?
Don't break the door.
If it isn't Orin!
Mother in?
The mistress?
She died toward the end of last month.
She died? It can't be true.
She's inside.
Open the door, mother!
Mother...
Where are you?
Orin is back.
Mr. Saito told me your mother lived...
...In Obama Village. Fukui.
She might be still alive In a valley there.
Lunch time!
I've been wondering what it is.
Look at the tip of the point.
I can see something red. What is it?
Where?
To the right of the tip of the point.