In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
Amidst the swirl of Tokyo's seamy nightlife of designer drugs, casual sex, and American slang, Zhou turns 30. It's a spiritual crisis for this Chinese immigrant who quotes Confucius, this Lothario and con artist who fences stolen goods. He falls for Kyōko, a seemingly shy provincial woman looking for the man who jilted her sister. As their relationship plays out, Hanawa intercuts stories of Kazuo, a hyperkinetic artist who loves the trendy Yōko (Kazuo bores her, and she pursues the indifferent Zhou), and Ali, a Pakistani Muslim who, broke and forlorn, stands outside a convenience store, love-struck by a clerk because she looked into his eyes (she thought he was shop-lifting)
