In postwar Kyoto, Mizoguchi Goichi (Ichikawa Raizo VIII), a stuttering and troubled youth, arrives at Shukaku Temple seeking solace and spiritual purpose as an apprentice monk. Raised in a temple and inspired by his father’s stories of Shukaku Temple’s eternal divine beauty, Goichi is enchanted by its serenity yet tormented by memories of his mother’s adultery and his father’s death.

As the world around the temple begins to intrude — tainted by vanity, lust, and hypocrisy — his ideal of pure beauty twists into something darker. The hypocritical and greedy head priest, Tayama Dosen (Nakamura Ganjiro II), and a manipulative, cynical friend (Nakadai Tatsuya) leave Goichi questioning the faith in humanity and religion that he had long cherished. Tormented, he one day decides to take destructive action towards his beloved Shunkaku Temple to preserve it — but at a devastating cost.

Inspired by true events and Mishima Yukio’s novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, this haunting psychological drama examines the fragile boundary between reverence and fanaticism, revealing the turbulent inner conflicts at the heart of the human condition. Director Ichikawa Kon (The Inugami Family, JFTFP25; Ten Dark Women, JFTFP20) captures Goichi’s unravelling with masterful style.