结束了德川幕府的统治,明治政府巍然确立。当年叱咤风云的“刽子手”釜田十兵卫(渡边谦 饰),作为幕府余党在荒芜寒冷的北海道过起隐姓埋名的生活。他当年对亡妻许下封印杀人刀的约定,通过劳作养活自己和两个孩子,但残酷的生存环境仍让他感到力不从心。这一日,十兵卫当年的战友马场金吾(柄本明 饰)前来造访。原来附近一座小镇上,美丽的妓女夏目(忽那汐里 饰)被粗暴的女人毁容,但是警察署长大石一藏(佐藤浩市 饰)却包庇纵容。夏目的同伴们凑钱寻找赏金杀手,无奈胆敢来犯的人们均被大石残暴摧折。为了改善孩子们的生活,十兵卫和马场上路,并在路上结识了怀着同一个目标的阿伊努族青年(柳乐优弥 饰)。三人一路同行,等待他们的将是未知的命运…… 本片翻拍自克林特·伊斯特伍德的同名之作。Just as Clint Eastwood's star-making spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars was inspired by Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, Japanese-Korean filmmaker Sang-il Lee (Villain) has decided to reinterpret Eastwood's Oscar®-winning Unforgiven as a Japanese period film. Set in the late 1800s, after the fall of Shogunate Japan, onetime assassin Jubee Kamata (Oscar® nominee Ken Watanabe -- Inception, The Last Samurai) lives in seclusion on a small farm. But when the new government begins harassing the local populace, Jubee is forced to break the promise he made to his dead wife and take up the sword once more.