Editing Branded to Kill (section)

==Plot==
Goro Hanada, the Japanese underworld's third-ranked hitman, and his wife, Mami, fly into [[Tokyo]] and are met by Kasuga, a former hitman-turned-taxi driver. Hanada agrees to help Kasuga return to the underworld, and the three go to a club owned by [[yakuza]] boss Michihiko Yabuhara. The two men are hired to escort a client from Sagami Beach to [[Nagano, Nagano|Nagano]]. After the meeting, Yabuhara seduces Mami.

Driving their client towards his destination, Hanada spots an ambush and dispatches several gunmen. Panicking, Kasuga attacks one of the ambushers, Koh, the fourth-ranked hitman, resulting in both of their deaths. Hanada leaves the client to secure Koh's car but hears three gunshots. Rushing back, he finds the client safe, while three additional ambushers have been shot through their foreheads. At another ambush, Hanada kills more gunmen and sets Sakura, the second-ranked hitman, on fire; the client shoots Sakura dead. On his way home, Hanada's car breaks down. Misako, a mysterious woman with a [[Death drive|deathwish]], gives him a ride. At home, Hanada has rough sex with Mami, fuelled by his [[Sexual fetishism|fetish]] for smelling boiling rice.

[[Image:Annu Mari and Jo Shishido in Branded to Kill.jpg|300px|thumb|left|alt=A shirtless man shouts at a woman. Dozens of butterflies are pinned to the wall behind them and drapped from the ceiling in front.|Hanada (right) demanding Misako buy him some rice. He uses the smell of boiling rice to achieve [[sexual arousal]].<ref name="Rayns"/> Her apartment is decorated with dead butterflies which have been interpreted as symbolizing obsessive love.<ref name="Teo">{{cite web
| last = Teo
| first = Stephen
| title = Seijun Suzuki: Authority in Minority
| publisher = Sense of Cinema
|date=July 2000
| url = http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/00/8/miff/suzuki.html
| access-date = 2007-04-16
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070403024525/http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/00/8/miff/suzuki.html |archive-date = April 3, 2007}}</ref>]]

Yabuhara hires Hanada to kill a customs officer, an [[ocularist]] and a jeweller. Hanada snipes the first from behind a billboard's animatronic cigarette lighter, shoots the second through a pipe drain when he leans over a sink, and blasts his way into the third's office, escaping on an advertising balloon. Misako then offers him a near-impossible contract to kill a foreigner. During the job, a [[butterfly]] lands on the barrel of his rifle, causing him to miss the target and kill a bystander. Misako tells Hanada that he will lose his rank and be killed. Preparing to leave Japan, he is shot by Mami, who sets fire to their apartment and flees. Hanada escapes, his belt buckle having stopped the bullet.

Reunited, Hanada and Misako alternate between failed attempts by him to seduce her and then to kill each other; she succumbs to his advances when he promises to kill her. Afterwards, Hanada realizes he loves Misako and is unable to kill her. Confused, he wanders the streets and passes out. The next day, he finds Mami at Yabuhara's club. She tries to seduce him, then fakes hysteria and tells him Yabuhara paid her to kill him and that the three men he had killed had stolen from Yabuhara's diamond smuggling operation, and the foreigner was an investigator sent by the supplier. Unmoved, Hanada kills her, gets drunk and waits for Yabuhara to return. Yabuhara arrives already dead with a bullet through his forehead.

Hanada returns to Misako's apartment, where a projected film shows her bound and tortured, and directs him to a [[Breakwater (structure)|breakwater]], where he will be killed the following day. Hanada submits to the demand, but kills the assassins instead. The former client arrives, revealing himself to be the legendary Number One Killer. He intends to kill Hanada but, in thanks for his work, allows him a truce. As Hanada holes up in Misako's apartment, Number One taunts him with threatening phone calls and forbids him to leave the apartment. Eventually, Number One moves in with the now-exhausted Hanada under the pretext that he is deciding how to kill him. They set times to eat, sleep and, later, to link arms everywhere they go. Number One suggests they eat out one day, but disappears during the meal.

At the apartment, Hanada finds a note and another film from Number One, stating he will be waiting at a [[gym]]nasium with Misako. Hanada arrives at the gym, but Number One does not show. As Hanada prepares to leave, a tape recording explains that Number One exhausts his targets before killing them. Tying a headband across his forehead, Hanada climbs into a boxing ring. Number One appears and shoots him. The headband stops the bullet and Hanada returns fire; Number One manages to shoot him several times before dying. As Hanada triumphantly declares himself the new Number One, Misako enters the gym. Hanada instinctively shoots her dead, again declares himself Number One, then falls out of the ring.<ref name="Yakuza Book">{{cite book|last=Schilling |first=Mark |title=The Yakuza Movie Book: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films |url=http://www.stonebridge.com/YAKUZA/yakuza.html |publisher=Stone Bridge Press |date=September 2003 |isbn=1-880656-76-0 |pages=98–104 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017060352/http://stonebridge.com/YAKUZA/yakuza.html |archive-date=October 17, 2007 }}</ref>