A&AM Presents
Goyokin
A Hideo Gosha Movie
TOHO presents
a FUJI TELEVISION & TOKYO EIGA production
The Tokugawa shogunate governed Japan
between the 17th and the end of the 19th century.
Its economy was based on Sado Isle's goldmines.
It was the shogun's gold.
Through the years,
the mines gave from 60 to 90 tons of metal.
Refined and transformed into bars
the gold was carried aboard the shogun's vessels
with 800 bars per trip.
The ships took the west road via Shimonoseki.
Navigating was dangerous
especially between Sado's isles and Noto's peninsula,
where the sea was hostile and sowed with reefs.
Inhabited by water demons,
those seas were called "the cemetery of ships".
GOYOKIN, THE GOLD OF THE SHOGUN
Executive Producers: FUJIMOTO Sanezumi, FUKUDA Hideo
SHIINO Hideyuki, SATO Masayuki
Scenario: TAZAKA Kei & GOSHA Hideo
Photography: OKAZAKI Kozo
Decors: KO JIMA Motoji
Music: SATO Masaru
with
NAKADAI Tatsuya
TANBA Tetsuro
ASAOKA Ruriko, TSUKASA Yoko,
TANAKA Kunie, KAYAKI Isao
NISHIMURA Akira
TONO Eijiro, HIURA Tsutomu
KUROBE Susumu, IGAWA Hisashi
TSUNEDA Fujio, OGATA Shinnosuke
ASAWAKA Yoshitaro, TANAKA Hiroshi
SUZUKI Haruo, YAMAGUCHI Hiroyoshi
MIYAZAWA Hajime, TANAKA Shiko
Narration: OZAWA Eitaro
NAKAMURA Kinnosuke
Realization: GOSHA Hideo
What a nice wedding procession!
Who might they be?
Me too, soon...
1831, ECHIZEN PROVINCE TERRITORY OF THE SABAI
Takichi dear!
Where are you?
Okumi!
Yaichi!
Father!
No one's here?
Father!
They disappeared!
Taken by the gods!
One night in October 1831,
a village of fishermen in the stronghold of the Sabai
totally disappeared.
No trace of the thirty inhabitants was ever found.
People said they were "taken by the gods".
The mystery was unsolved.
THREE YEARS LATER IN 1834
EDO (Tokyo)
Come, Come!
It's time for the fencing show.
Now, we can start.
Wait a bit.
Keep calm.
It's an exceptional blade.
But some business first.
Take a look at this miraculous ointment.
It's the real one, not some fake.
A secret formula...
Stop.
You'll sell later. Where is the fighter?
- Wait a moment! - Go!
Attention!
The weapon master!
- We attack? - Wait.
Wait!
Continue.
Don't stop.
I want to compare my art against yours.
Fleeing?
It's not him!
Insolent!
Thanks.
You look rich.
Have you found a trail?
Let me have a part too.
I am Fujimaki Samon.
I love money above all.
Where is Wakisaka Magobei?
Wakisaka Magobei?
Are you in a hurry?
You know Magobei?
He paid my drinks once or twice.
I invited myself at his table.
Why do you want to kill him? Explain.
Mind your own business!
Where is Magobei? Talk, or else...
No chance. He left the circus.
I'm replacing him.
Look at this.
An Echizen sword, of the utmost quality.
You really want to sell it?
Such a beautiful sword, and such great art.
Except your respect,
that is all you've got.
I don't want it anymore.
What will you do without a sword?
A samurai doesn't become a farmer.
Selling your sword is to quit your vocation, right?
What honor is there to be a samurai?
Master!
It isn't nothing!
You made up your mind?
I'll take it to the nail. Wait for me. Don't drink too much.
Wait!
Don't follow me!
Are you looking for me?
Wakisaka Magobei. Die without asking question.
You know my name?
You leave me no choice.
Takeuchi!
Why do you want to kill me?
It's been three years I quitted the Sabai clan.
What do they want from me?
Talk!
I don't understand.
Answer or I kill you.
Wait!
It's the chamberlain...
The chamberlain?
Tatewaki?
What does he want?
Talk!
The fishermen...
He's going to start again.
But before doing so,
he ordered me to eliminate you.
He's going to do the "taken by the gods" act?
Wait!
Wait, Kunai!
Why kill those fishermen?
They're innocents.
Innocents?
They stole gold from one of the Shogun's ship that drowned yesterday.
They deserved it.
What?
They gave us all the gold they retrieved.
We hid the gold in the chests of a wedding procession.
It is far by now.
Kunai Koriki!
Complain to the chamberlain!
I have my orders from chamberlain Rokugo Tatewaki.
Rokugo Tatewaki?
These are his orders?
Bravo!
You're now an accomplice.
23 chests of 20 gold bars each hidden by fishermen.
The rest drowned.
A wedding, good idea!
For safety, we used this wedding kimono
we found in the village.
Take out the bride!
Kill them all!
Assassins!
Tatewaki! I want to talk to you!
I obliged the fishermen
to give the gold they saved to our clan.
And you, Tatewaki,
you promised me to give them a reward.
In fact, you wanted to kill them from the start, right?
The clan's finances are disastrous.
I need this gold!
The harvest are catastrophic,
I don't want to raise the taxes.
I don't even want to pay the annual tribute to the shogunate.
The debts, the farmer's revolts...
The shogunate is waiting only for this to crush us.
This gold will give us some respite.
Magobei, try to understand!
I understand your situation.
But you're wrong!
Our jobs as vassal is to maintain the prestige of the Sabai.
Am I wrong?
Am I wrong to be loyal?
You're wrong!
He is wrong to think
the presence of the Sabai justifies such cruelty.
Is this the price of loyalty?
No!
He's wrong!
I quit the clan.
Magobei.
Those fishermen, I had to kill them.
If gold wasn't vital for us, I would've acted otherwise.
Imagined if they've exposed everything.
Our clan would've been lost.
I sacrificed some weaklings
for our clan and its 600 vassals to survive.
It was the way of the samurais.
I had enough of these ways.
If I stay in the clan,
I'll have to battle you one day.
You, the brother of my wife and my friend.
I leave the clan.
It's the only solution.
I quit everything and I leave.
But before I do, give me a favor.
Swear to me to never do it again.
Think it over.
Why kill each other?
Promise me to say nothing, whatever the case
and I'll go quietly.
Where are you going?
Home.
What?
At the Sabai.
To do what?
For 20 or 30 fishermen?
Close your eyes one more time and everything will be fine.
The shogunate won't know anything.
I closed my eyes three years earlier.
I was wrong.
CASTLE OF THE SABAI
I tried everything to recover our finances.
Concentrate our efforts on the development of rice plantations.
We'll dig plantations along the coastline.
The exhumed sand will serve as compost for the new fields.
The output will be at least 10000 bushels of rice.
My Lord!
The confiscated lands of the shogunate represents 10000 bushels.
- Here is the source of our problems. - Measure your words.
It's nothing. Continue.
If we continue indebting ourselves, We'll be running to our death.
We have no choice.
The clearing costs a fortune!
How are you going to finance it?
Tatewaki.
What is your project?
For the financing,
let me worry about it.
Lady Shino.
You're a worker.
For who do you weave?
For Magobei, your husband? You'll never give up?
Our lord has accepted our clearing project.
We need to find some funds, whatever it takes.
- Who's here? - Vassal Koriki.
A letter from Edo.
What is it?
Wakiza Magobei is coming back.
Magobei?
He's gone several days ago.
He must already be at the Nakasendo.
It seems you wanted Magobei killed.
Is that true?
Yes.
Kunai...
Why have you acted without my permission?
I know Magobei very well.
He'll never betray us, whatever the case.
Magobei is like that.
I'm sorry.
But...
I don't have the same trust as you on men.
Three years ago,
You promised Magobei to never do it again.
If we succeed in stealing the gold one more time,
the shogunate will double its vigilance.
What's more, if
Magobei knows that we're doing it again...
I never told you anything
and I took the responsibility of eliminating Magobei.
Thanks to you,
I have an honorable rank, me who was nothing.
For you, chamberlain,
and for the 600 vassals of clan Sabai,
I am ready to have my hands bloodied.
Ready?
Anything goes!
4 and 6, even!
I won again. Sorry guys!
You have one of these lucks! How do you do it?
It's only luck.
So?
Care for one more?
What does it mean?
You think I'm cheating?
Who do you take me for?
Those numbers,
only God knows them!
I'm the best of all Japan.
I want apologies!
Fast!
Bastards!
We apologized!
We refunded you.
Let us go.
- Please! - Sore losers!
Look at those twerps!
You dogs! It's normal to cheat at the dices.
Suckers!
Shut up, dirty bitch!
We're going to pay ourselves, all right guys?
Wait!
Try me!
I am Ohira,
"taken by the Gods"!
Taken by the Gods?
What is that?
Listen up. One howly night,
Spirits with crow heads
took everyone from my village.
But they didn't touched me.
What do you think?
She's completely crazy.
Hey guys.
Let's show her we're not crows.
Who're you?
- Leave. - Thanks!
Little bitch!
Pervert!
What is it, brother?
Shino...
I'm picking some flowers
In the moonlight
I look at the starry sky
Shino.
Magobei is coming back.
Back home?
I have to kill Magobei.
So, it's for this passage rival bands are killing each other?
Who'd want a place like this?
A real mess!
The villagers have fled. It's now deserted.
Perfect.
If Magobei took the road to Nakasendo,
he has to pass through this passage.
Let's wait for him here.
He can't escape us.
A squad will be enough.
Someone's coming.
A woman.
Let her through.
Hey, beauty!
You all right?
Hang on to me.
This village is deserted. Why?
Because of the rival bands that kill each other for this passage,
everyone's fled.
Come have fun.
Mister samurai.
Thank you for the other day.
My friend wants to see you.
She wants to thank you.
Mister!
Where are you taking me?
Wait!
I said she's waiting.
Come, please.
Come, or she'll punish me.
It's here.
I'm done for.
Those jerks caught me cheating.
It's the end of Oriha,
"taken by the gods".
Because you drink too much.
You're shaking.
Get out, if I disgust you.
Don't follow me like a dog.
- Ohira! - Shut up!
Rokuzo!
Leave us. Go down.
Go down I said!
If you don't obey me...
Okay, I'm going down.
I understood.
Close the door!
Mister...
Drink in peace.
You'll stay with me today?
I want to thank you.
My body is yours.
Entirely.
You're Oriha, taken by the gods?
Where do you come from?
From the land of the Sabai, the coastal village of Kurosaki.
Three years ago,
where were you?
Three years ago?
At this time,
I was another person.
I was just finishing my training with a weaver
and got back home to Kurosaki.
I was to be married with Takichi.
I worked hard for five years
because I wanted a wedding kimono.
I was saving on the food.
I was sending money to my father.
After five years, I finally had my kimono!
Not some kind of kid kimono,
but a superb wedding kimono!
I was in such a hurry to show it
to my father and fiancée,
that I sent it back before returning home.
But my kimono vanished!
Takichi too, my father also...
The village was empty!
I lost the will to live on.
Now look what I have become.
Not so fast!
You know something.
True?
How come?
Tell me what you know.
Where are they?
Where have the villagers gone?
Do you know?
Tell me quickly!
We meet again!
You know each other?
That's what I thought...
You asked me to interrogate him on the fishermen!
Do it yourself!
You are making me crazy!
Tell me what you know!
Stop!
Let go of me!
Leave me!
I was counting on her to make you talk.
- Let me go! - No!
- Calm yourself! - Stop touching me.
Don't get moody.
Let's drink.
What are you looking for?
If I give the wrong answer, will you kill me?
Am I right?
Looks like you know something.
Don't act innocent. Get me up to date.
What are you talking about?
You know very well.
The Sabai wants to kill you.
I'm certain that you've belonged to their clan.
Three years go, in the land of the Sabai,
under the reign
of I don't know which Matsudaira chief,
a village of fishermen disappeared. "Taken by the gods", it seems.
It was at the same time that you left the Sabai.
That's not all.
At that same time, a shogun's vessel full of gold
drowned near the Sabai's territory. Isn't that amazing?
In my opinion,
there's something between these three events.
Suppose...
The Sabai robs the Shogun's gold,
and kills all the fishermen to keep them from talking.
It makes sense.
Let's find some evidence.
We'll blackmail the Sabai.
We'll be rich!
You thought about it, no?
Put me in.
Magobei!
You're wrong.
Samon!
Oriha!
We're going to have fun.
Let's see if you can kill me!
We'll make you sweat!
Oriha!
You're next.
Mister!
Leave this place!
Shino!
You're after the wrong person.
Wait!
Who are you?
As you see,
my nose guides me where there is money.
Hire me as a killer.
I prayed everyday
for your return.
I was sure you'd be back.
Each time I weaved a dress,
I told myself you’d be back
when it would be done.
Like a child,
I waited three years for you.
Shino.
You're thinner.
You too.
You know...
Don't say anything.
Shut up.
For God's sake,
don't go back to the Sabai.
If you go back...
I left the Sabai to be with you.
We'll have enough to live on
for some time.
This money is a gift from Tatewaki, your brother?
I see.
He sent you with this money
so we'd go elsewhere?
- Honey... - No way!
I have to return to the Sabai.
The Sabai will kill you!
I know.
Honey...
Take me far away.
I'll weave, I'll sow...
I'll do everything to not be a burden to you.
Keep me on your sides.
The girl I helped earlier, you saw her?
Three years ago,
her fiancée got murdered.
Her life was destroyed.
His brother, Tatewaki,
is on the verge of doing it again.
Wait!
Listen to me!
My brother is in a delicate situation.
You know the Samurai's duty.
That's why you left the clan three years ago.
Close your eyes another time.
My brother doesn't want to kill you.
He's letting us go.
His last act of friendship.
He doesn't want to kill me?
But I'm already dead.
Ever since I closed my eyes on that slaughter.
By letting them,
I lost my dignity.
I forgot that I owed my duty as a samurai
to all those helpless people.
This I understood
by living the dirty streets of Edo
these last three years.
What good is a sword without honor?
I let myself drift away.
I was ready to sell my sword.
That's when I learned that Tatewaki will start again.
My anger towards Tatewaki
guided me on the right way.
I have a duty to finish.
It concerns only me.
I'll find my honor back.
That's why
I've decided to return to the Sabai.
To rescue those innocent fishermen.
And,
for me too, to live again.
Try to understand.
My love!
Sabai Castle
We were waiting for you.
For the peace of our clan, die!
Not so fast, Kunai!
I want to see Tatewaki. I have to talk to him.
Out of question!
Bastard!
Traitor!
Wait!
Listen up.
Try to understand me.