Megumi Hatachiya

When Kanako, a model daughter and a brilliant student, disappears, her mother asks her ex-husband, a violent former policeman, to find her. As his investigation progresses, his idealized image of Kanako cracks: the girl hides a dark life that her father can not even imagine.

Masamichi is about to take up postgraduate study. He invites six student friends round for a farewell dinner at his Kyoto flat.

In 2015, the Japanese economy has collapsed due to global recession. While unemployment rates are over 35 percent, 150,000 people commit suicide every year. In such conditions, a TV program, 24-hour Marriage Battle Royale, skyrockets to unprecedented fame and popularity, where people are set on fire on camera. It’s the ultimate in extreme programming, an ordeal of marriage hunting where women in debt play games to marry famed celebrities abroad, with the losers facing humiliation and could be death. Hana Shinjo, a has-been idol, makes a desperate stab at a new life by applying to the show as a contestant. When accepted, she finds herself pitted against a single mother, a former business owner, a club hostess, a rogue, a high-school girl, and an assorted mob of heartless, cold-blooded women. A frenzied battle for life itself now begins.

Based on an actual murder that took place in 1996 in Shibuya, Tokyo. One day, Emi receives a visit from her ex-boyfriend, Takumi. He tells her that her older sister, Tomomi, has disappeared after murdering her husband, Kohei. Emi is devastated. What pushed her sister to such a horrible deed?