EXT. HIGHWAY - A HALF HOUR LATER
Casey's CAR is entering a slightly mountainous area. Small farms line the road; livestock is grazing close by. Casey's CAR whips around a CURVE.
Casey checks his watch. It's 1:47 P.M.
EXT. VILLAGE - 2 P.M.
Casey's CAR comes into a small village that offers a PAY PHONE, the first he's seen since fleeing
INT. PHONE BOOTH
Casey dials Noriko at GHQ.
CASEY
Noriko! I'm so glad I got you. Look, you've got to call the police for me, since I don't speak Japanese.
Kramer's team is going to rob the Imperial Bank in Shiina-machi when it closes at three o'clock. Yeah, in an hour. They're going to poison everybody and frame an innocent man.
INT. NORIKO'S OFFICE - ECONOMIC SECTION - GHQ,
Noriko is sitting at her desk, holding the phone to her ear. She shares the office with ANOTHER JAPANESE WOMAN.
CASEY
(O.S.)
Tell the cops to get over there, then call me back. Here's the number.
EXT. PHONE BOOTH - FIVE MINUTES LATER
Casey is waiting outside the phone booth, studying a neighboring rice paddy. It's August, it's blazing hot, the cicadas are chirping. A GREEN SNAKE slithers alongside the irrigation ditch.
AN APPROACHING CAR
zooms toward Casey. He freezes. Is it from
The car slows down. Casey looks around nervously. There's nowhere to hide.
Casey gets ready to duck a volley of bullets but the car accelerates and passes him. The driver was merely wondering whether he'd broken down and needed assistance.
The phone rings and Casey snatches it up.
INT. NORIKO'S OFFICE
Noriko is standing at her desk, the phone in her hand; she has the office to herself now. She's upset and concerned.
NORIKO
The police didn't believe me. They think it's a joke.
CASEY
(O.S.)
The idiots!
NORIKO
Robert, when I said it came from you, the police told me you're wanted for murder. For stabbing a GI at
INT. PHONE BOOTH
Casey is shocked.
CASEY
And I'll bet the medical examiner from
INT. NORIKO'S OFFICE
NORIKO
As soon as I mentioned your name, they wanted to know who I was and where they could find you. Don't come into
INT. PHONE BOOTH
CASEY
Time is running out. I've got to see if I can head them off. Look, I'll meet you in
INT. NORIKO'S OFFICE
NORIKO
Why Kinosaki?
INT. PHONE BOOTH
CASEY
To find the friends of Kita Ikki.
He hangs up.
EXT. ROAD
Casey's CAR shoots down the road toward a range of LOW HILLS.
He passes a GROUP OF BOYS ON BICYCLES. Swinging around a bend, he comes across a FARMER riding in an OX-CART.
Then one of his TIRES BLOWS OUT, and he's forced to come to a HALT.
INT. CAR
CASEY
Oh shit, Lord, not now!
He jumps out to change the tire.
EXT. ROAD
Removing his suit jacket, Casey sets about to changing the TIRE.
INT. CAR
THE TIME CLOCK ON THE DASHBOARD
reads 2:34.
EXT. ALLEYWAY - SHIINA-MACHI SECTION OF
A JEEP is parked in a cramped alleyway. In the front seat are JIM and GARY, in uniform; in the back sits MASA, the Unit 731 poison administrator, wearing a brown
JIM shakes out a pack of cigarettes and offers them to Gary and Masa, who accept. Lighting up, Jim checks his watch; it reads 2:35.
EXT. ROAD
Having changed the TIRE, Casey scrambles into the car and zooms off.
INT. CAR
CASEY
Lord, if I'm late, I'll never forgive myself.
THE LOVELY JAPANESE COUNTRYSIDE
seems to SWIM at him as he races to beat the clock.
EXT. ALLEYWAY
Jim stubs out a cigarette in the jeep ashtray. In the back seat, a BLACK DOCTOR’S BAG sits on the seat next to MASA.
EXT. HIGHWAY - OUTSIDE
CASEY'S P.O.V.
THE
appears through his windshield. He glances at the DASHBOARD CLOCK.
CASEY
Fifteen minutes to go. Please, let me get there in time.
EXT. ALLEYWAY
JIM checks his watch. It's 2:50. He stubs out his last cigarette.
JIM
All right.
MASA climbs out of the back of the jeep. He carries the BLACK DOCTOR’S BAG.
EXT. HIGHWAY - OUTSIDE
Casey gets stalled in a LINE OF TRAFFIC waiting to get inside
CASEY
(yelling)
Goddamnit, move!
EXT. IMPERIAL (TEIKOKU) BANK - SHIINA-MACHI BRANCH
It's a small, unobtrusive bank branch tucked away on a side street. MASA enters.
INT. IMPERIAL BANK
It's closing time. Inside are FOURTEEN PEOPLE—the MANAGER and THIRTEEN CLERKS. Masa is the only customer. The manager approaches him. (The following dialog is given in English, but at the director's discretion, it can be delivered in Japanese to make it more authentic, and the English translation can be supplied in subtitles at the bottom of the screen.)
MANAGER
Can I help you? We're just about to close.
MASA
I'm Dr. Matsui from the Tokyo Metropolitan Department of Health. Did you know there's been an outbreak of cholera in the neighborhood?
The manager glances at the CLERKS; they're shocked by the news.
MANAGER
We've heard nothing of this.
MASA
Cholera, as you know, is extremely dangerous and very contagious. It can be spread by the passing of paper money from hand to hand.
He sets down the DOCTOR’S BAG on a table.
MASA
I'm here to fumigate your yen notes before they can spread germs. But first, I'm going to have to give you all a vaccine so that you good people won't be in danger of this terrible disease.
MANAGER
A vaccine?
MASA
It's perfectly harmless. No side effects. If you bring some cups, I'll show you. I'll drink the vaccine with you to prove it's perfectly safe to ingest.
The MANAGER thinks a moment, and then, like most Japanese—and most people all over the world, for that matter—votes to trust the person in authority.
MANAGER
(concerned)
Cholera can be quite fatal. We'll be happy to cooperate.
The MANAGER signals to one of the FEMALE BANK CLERKS, who leaves the room and returns presently carrying a TRAY with 15 Japanese tea cups without handles.
MASA smiles.
MASA
Good. Now we can begin.
EXT.
Casey is stuck is a traffic jam in downtown
CASEY
Come on, you bastards, out of my way! Jesus, I wish I could make this traffic jam part like Moses and the
He begins pounding the DASHBOARD with his fist out of frustration.
INT. IMPERIAL BANK
MASA picks up his teacup and sets it off to the side. Opening the DOCTOR’S BAG, he removes two BOTTLES—one large, one small. The larger one is amber-colored and has a label that reads “SECOND” in English. The smaller is of transparent glass and has an white precipitate on the bottom. Then, while the fourteen bank employees watch with great interest, he fills THEIR CUPS with the clear liquid from the LARGER BOTTLE.
When he inserts an eyedropper into the smaller bottle, he collects a dose from the clear liquid and adds it to his cup. But when he distributes drops from the smaller bottle to the other cups, he deliberately jams the end of the dropper into the white precipitate, then he adds this compound into the other cups. He smiles to himself.
EXT.
Casey pulls out of the traffic line and veers into a SIDE STREET, hoping to find a shortcut.
CASEY
Now watch me get lost in goddamn downtown
INT. IMPERIAL BANK
MASA raises his teacup in a toast; the fourteen bank employees follow suit.
MASA
Kampei! [To your health!]
They all drain their cups of the clear liquid.
EXT.
Casey is twisting through a MAZE of alleyways and sidestreets. He glances at the DASHBOARD CLOCK.
CASEY
Fuck a duck, it's three o'clock!
INT. IMPERIAL BANK
At first there's no problem. While the fourteen bank employees stand around blinking, MASA deftly goes to the front entrance and locks it.
MANAGER
Why did you do that?
MASA
So no one can interrupt us during the fumigation process.
MASA checks his watch and smiles to himself.
Then something terrible starts to happen. One of the EMPLOYEES begins to cough; another starts to GAG.
BANK CLERK #1
Something wrong. That taste—
BANK CLERK #2
My stomach—
People begin doubling over and vomiting. A couple of them drop to the floor. At first a few of them are staring at MASA, wondering what he's done to them, but then they too keel over and they lie on the floor, wracked by spasms.
As the TEIGIN BANK CLERKS die around him, MASA stands calmly in the middle of the room, studying his watch, timing the poison. He's not suffering because he avoided the poisonous white precipitate.
EXT.
Casey is tearing through the narrow streets of
INT. IMPERIAL BANK
While the fourteen bank employees are screaming and dying on the floor, shuddering and throwing up, MASA marches to the back of the bank and unlocks the back door. JIM and GARY are waiting outside, smiling and holding big empty canvas sacks with drawstrings.
JIM
Tea party over?
I bet they didn't ask for fortune cookies.
They enter, and with MASA, they begin stuffing the canvas sacks full of greenbacks.
EXT.
Casey is still on a frantic quest for the bank.
INT. IMPERIAL BANK
Stepping over the contorted bodies, JIM and GARY sling the canvas sacks stuffed with cash over their shoulders and head for the back door.
EXT.
Casey is craning his neck, trying to identify street signs.
EXT. ALLEYWAY
Jim and Gary dump the sacks into the back of the Jeep, covering them over with a tarp.
INT. IMPERIAL BANK
MASA is cramming bundles of banknotes into his sack.
OUT OF HIS SIGHT
TWO YOUNG WOMEN who are miraculously still alive are crawling along the floor for a side exit unknown to the thieves. One of them is the clerk who carried the tray in.
AT THE BACK DOOR
C'mon, man, let's get out of here!
MASA stuffs some packets of high-denomination yen notes into his pockets and then lugs his sack out the back way.
EXT.
Leaning out his car window, Casey asks an ELDERLY JAPANESE GENTLEMAN for directions. The gentleman points in the direction of a nearby FARMER'S MARKET. Casey thanks him and zooms off.
EXT. ALLEYWAY
DOLLY SHOT - AERIAL VIEW
THE CAMERA PULLS BACK AND UP so that we get a clear view of the maze of the neighborhood streets from above. While the JEEP tears off in one direction, we see CASEY'S CAR approach from another.
EXT. TEIGIN BANK
Parking his car, Casey clambers out and runs up to the front entrance. It's locked. He dashes around to the side.
WHAT HE SEES
The two YOUNG WOMEN dragging themselves out of the side exit. They're obviously very ill and half-dead.
CASEY
Sweet Christ, I'm too late.
He runs in through the side exit.
INT. TEIGIN BANK
Casey rushes into the bank to find TWELVE PEOPLE dead on the floor, contorted in a poisoned death agony, and the bank cleaned out. Paper money is scattered all over, and the tray with the poisoned teacups is still sitting out.
It's a scene from Hell.
CASEY
Oh my God.
He stumbles out of the bank, in shock and weeping. He's overcome with emotion from the charnel-house scene.
EXT. TEIGIN BANK
Bent over, Casey is getting sick to his stomach against the side of the building.
Noriko comes running up. At first glance she's terrified that Casey has been poisoned too.
NORIKO
Are you all right?
Straightening up, Casey wipes his mouth and stares at her.
CASEY
You shouldn't be here.
NORIKO
I couldn't stay at my desk and do nothing. I was afraid something might happen to you.
She glances at the BANK and steps toward it.
CASEY
You don't want to go inside. It's like fucking
Noriko spots the two YOUNG WOMEN crawling out of the back and reacts in horror.
NORIKO
We must get help!
Grabbing her by the arm, Casey starts to lead her to his car.
CASEY
The cops are going to be here any minute. Let's get out of here before they try to pin this one on me too.
INT. CAR - MOVING SHOT
Casey is driving them out of
CASEY
Who is Kita Ikki? Where can we find him?
NORIKO
He's buried in Meguro. He was executed by a firing squad in 1937 for attempting to overthrow the Japanese government and install a military dictatorship. Most historians believe he was innocent.
CASEY
What was he?
NORIKO
He started out as a great revolutionary socialist thinker, but then, after the First World War, he became obsessed with the idea that
CASEY
Sieg heil.
NORIKO
He's known as "the father of Japanese fascism." Yet he also believed that the only way the poor farmers in
CASEY
So who would his friends be?
NORIKO
I don't know. All of the young Koda-ha officers implicated in the February 1936 Rebellion were executed along with him.
CASEY
Then who else could be called "the friends of Kita Ikki"?
NORIKO
Diehard fascists, possibly. Or some new group of extreme left-wing revolutionaries. I don't know. It's very puzzling. Could it be a code name?
CASEY
You mean, like the name of an organization? "The Friends of Kita Ikki"?
NORIKO
Kramer is a spy—
CASEY
What would "the Friends of Kita Ikki" be in Japanese?
NORIKO
Kita Ikki-tai. It means Kita Ikki Society or Kita Ikki Group.
A light bulb goes on in Casey's head; he strikes the steering wheel with a fist.
CASEY
I'll bet it's the name of the phoney Communist-front cadre that's going to be blamed for the Kinosaki operation!
EXT. HIGHWAY - OUTSIDE
We see CASEY'S CAR zipping along the ribbon of road as it escapes
INT. CAR
Casey is driving and Noriko is sitting beside him.
CASEY
You know anyone around Kinosaki?
NORIKO
I have an aunt who lives in the tiny
CASEY
Good, we'll stay with her while we're scouting out the area.
EXT. KANSAI COUNTRYSIDE - SEVERAL HOURS LATER
They're driving through a lovely
CASEY
This Kinosaki, is it close to any cities?
NORIKO
No, it's very countryside. It's surrounded by mountains and only a few miles from the
Kinosaki is very famous, since
Casey is taken aback.
CASEY
The Emperor? Really? I wonder if that's their plan—to kill the Emperor while he's on vacation in some kind of awful chemical or germ warfare experiment involving the hot springs.
Noriko is horrified by such an idea.
NORIKO
Would they dare do such a thing?
CASEY
Kramer bragged that they were going to commit a crime that would shock the world. When we get to Izushi, I'll phone my friend Helen White in the Imperial Household and ask her if the Emperor has any plans to visit Kinosaki on September 2nd.
EXT. IZUSHI - NIGHT
Tucked away in a mountain valley, the tiny hamlet of IZUSHI sparkles in the night as Casey and Noriko enter it. MOUNTAINS loom all around them, and THE MARUYAMA RIVER runs close by. In the distance we can see the famous
CASEY'S CAR
rolls down the narrow, darkened streets. The houses are incredibly old-fashioned. Casey and Noriko have traveled back in time to the real Old Japan.
Casey turns onto a PERFECTLY PRESERVED
CASEY
My God, how old is this village? This is like driving through an Utamaro print.
NORIKO
This street goes back to
CASEY
We're back in the thirteenth century.
They swing onto another narrow street, this one next to a LARGE RICE PADDY; a MOUNTAIN rises in the background. It's on the outskirts of the village.
NORIKO
This is where my aunt lives. My family moved here in 1944. The B-29s were leveling
Casey parks in front of the little house next to the rice field.
EXT. MRS. IKEDA'S HOUSE - NIGHT
Noriko knocks at the front door of MRS. IKEDA'S HOUSE. The door is answered by Mrs. Ikeda, a short, wizened Japanese woman with silver hair tied back in a bun who wears an apron. She and Noriko exchange a few words of Japanese. Casey bows, and Mrs. Ikeda admits them.
INT. MRS. IKEDA'S HOUSE
It's a simple, unpretentious rural Japanese home. The furniture is worn but not broken. Sliding paper doors separate the small rooms.
CASEY
Can I use the telephone?
Noriko points to the antique telephone on a table by the foyer. Casey dials Helen White's home in Meguro.
CASEY
Helen, it's Robert Casey, I'm so glad I got you. This is very important. Does the Emperor have any plans to vacation at the spa at Kinosaki on September 2nd?
INT. HELEN WHITE'S HOUSE - MEGURO
The phone to her ear, Helen is sitting on the sofa in her elegantly-decorated living room. She's very concerned.
HELEN
No, but General MacArthur does. How did you know? It's a very closely guarded secret.
BACK TO SCENE
Casey is dumbstruck.
CASEY
MacArthur? Oh, Jesus Christ.
HELEN
(O.S.)
What are you talking about?
CASEY
They're going to assassinate the Supreme Commander when he visits Kinosaki, and they're going to make it look like the Communists did it.
INT. HELEN WHITE'S HOUSE
HELEN
Who are they?
BACK TO SCENE
CASEY
The cavemen from General Willoughby's outfit in G-2. They're also responsible for yesterday's mass poisoning at Teigin Bank.
INT. HELEN WHITE'S HOUSE
HELEN
Didn't you hear? The police already arrested someone for that horrible crime. A painter and haiku poet named Hirasawa Sadamichi.
BACK TO SCENE
CASEY
(grinning)
A killer poet. I like it.
INT. HELEN WHITE'S HOUSE
HELEN
Robert, I don't know if I should be talking to you. You know you're wanted for murder? They say you stabbed a GI to death at
BACK TO SCENE
CASEY
Yeah, I'm a errand boy for Frank Costello. Look, Helen, they're trying to frame me just like they're framing this Carl Sandburg type.
INT. HELEN WHITE'S HOUSE
HELEN
How can I believe you?
BACK TO SCENE
Casey is getting exasperated.
CASEY
For God's sake, Helen, don't you think things have been getting a little fishy lately? Right after I leave our evidence with you for safekeeping, Toshio winds up in front of a subway train and your house gets burglarized. And now I'm accused of murder? Give me a break.
INT. HELEN WHITE'S HOUSE
HELEN
I'm still not certain. The police were here—
BACK TO SCENE
CASEY
Okay, don't believe me. But contact MacArthur's office at GHQ and tell them he's got to cancel his vacation. They'll believe you.
INT. HELEN WHITE'S HOUSE
HELEN
I'd lose my standing with the Emperor, spreading rumors. It's bad enough that I'm associated with an accused murderer. I'm truly sorry, Robert, I'm afraid I can't offer any further help.
BACK TO SCENE
CASEY
I should warn you—Dr. Adler is in with this crowd up to his stethoscope. The War Orphan's Home is a front for—
INT. HELEN WHITE'S HOUSE
HELEN
Now I know you've been drinking. Dr. Adler is above reproach. After Johns Hopkins, he did his postdoctoral work at
BACK TO SCENE
CASEY
Yeah, and Aaron Burr went to
He hangs up, defeated.
NORIKO
What did she say?
CASEY
It's MacArthur who's coming to Kinosaki on the second. But she won't help. She believes the Establishment.
NORIKO
What are you doing to do?
CASEY
I'll call SCAP tomorrow. But they won't believe me.
NORIKO
What can we do here?
CASEY
We'll start with the Kita Ikki-tai.
MRS. IKEDA shoots them a worried, frightened look.
MRS. IKEDA
Kita Ikki-tai?
CASEY
She knows what it is!
What is it? Why is she so scared?
NORIKO and MRS. IKEDA have a hurried exchange in Japanese.
NORIKO
It's a very dangerous, very secret society that sprang up after the war. Ex-Kempetai officers, former members of the Black Dragon Society, and renegade Shinto priests. The most evil remnants of the Old Japan.
My aunt says they're very influential out here in countryside. People here are terrified of them.
CASEY
No wonder. They sound like a cross between the Mafia and the KKK.
He snaps his fingers.
CASEY
Now it starts to make sense. Kramer robbed Teigin Bank and poisoned all the witnesses so he can pay off this Kita Ikki-tai for protection.
NORIKO
Protection? I don't understand.
CASEY
After the boys from GHQ assassinate MacArthur, the Kita Ikki Club will distribute the payoffs to all the local authorities—the cops, the courts, the government bureaucrats—so the Commies get blamed for the assassination and any incriminating evidence gets destroyed or altered. Like the Mafia back in the States.
NORIKO
But GHQ already controls
CASEY
Because it looks better if the Japanese do the dirty work. And the whole Japanese establishment around here gets bought off too.
NORIKO
How are they going to do it?
CASEY
I don't know. Let's scout out Kinosaki.
EXT. STREET - KINOSAKI - DAY
It's a beautiful, sunny summer day. Kinosaki is a picturesque mountain village with canals running through it. Casey and Noriko are strolling through the marketplace outside the TRAIN STATION, a crowded small-town train depot.
They're looking over the merchandise. Casey is intrigued in particular by the dried squid for sale.
A NEW ANGLE
Around the corner, we can see JIM and GARY sitting in a Jeep, scanning people coming out of the train station.
Spotting Casey and Noriko in the marketplace crowd on the other side of the plaza, Jim nudges
JIM
There they are.
Holy shit. So they didn't take the train.
JIM
Probably drove. But Doc Adler was right. They were headed here.
Thank you, Mrs. White, for shooting your mouth off.
JIM grins.
JIM
Dinner is served.
ANGLE ON CASEY AND NORIKO
as they continue to explore the town. They follow the canals. Shops line the streets, and at the far end, by the base of the mountain, are located the INNS and the HOT-SPRINGS BATHHOUSES.
CASEY
I like the canals.
NORIKO
There's a great short story by Shiga Naoya about a man who comes here to recuperate after a streetcar accident.
ANGLE ON JIM AND GARY
as they thread their way through the crowds in the narrow side streets of Kinosaki. They're pursuing Casey and Noriko.
WITH CASEY AND NORIKO
Following the canal, they approach the INNS and the HOT-SPRINGS BATHHOUSES.
NORIKO
How'll they do it?
CASEY
Maybe by poisoning the
JAPANESE GUESTS are checking into some of the posher INNS.
NORIKO
They couldn't do that!
CASEY
If they can pull off Teigin Bank, they're capable of anything.
Dressed in colorful robes, GUESTS are filing into the HOT-SPRINGS BATHHOUSES, towels draped over their arms.
NORIKO
What if they decided to kill just MacArthur?
CASEY
They might try to murder him here in one of the bathhouses while he's relaxing. Like Caesar on the Ides of March.
NORIKO
But wouldn't it be hard for them to get away?
CASEY
Not if there was a diversion here in town. Maybe that's where the Kita Ikki-tai comes in.
WITH JIM AND GARY
as they slip past the INNS that we just saw Casey and Noriko stroll by.
WITH CASEY AND NORIKO
They reach the base of the green MOUNTAIN, which towers above them. There is a large beautiful
CASEY
They look like little canaries.
NORIKO
That's
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