Två ninjor från varsin by, med olika mål och metoder. Hur ska de kunna få varandra?

Elvaårige Jim lever ett behagligt, skyddat liv i Shanghais brittiska koloni. Han berörs inte av andra världskriget som rasar i Europa. Så överfaller japanerna Pearl Harbor, och hans liv ändras drastiskt.

The film takes place aboard an American submarine in the Pacific during World War II. The sub's commander is ordered to stop and pick up an underwater demolition team led by Lt. Hayes, whose mission is to locate and destroy a US submarine sunken in a lagoon off Bikini Atoll before the Japanese are able to raise it and capture the advanced radar system on board.

Under andra världskriget blir en amerikansk stridspilot nedskjuten över Stilla havet. Han kämpar sig in till en liten ö, men det visar sig snart att han inte är ensam. Där finns redan en japansk officer som tagit sig i land efter att hans fartyg sänkts av amerikanarna. De är två desperata dödsfiender som ideligen ryker ihop i deras kamp för överlevnad. Men de inser snart att deras enda chans är att samarbeta och beslutar därför om tillfällig vapenvila. Tillsammans bygger de en flotte för att bege sig till en större ö. Men resan dit förvandlas snabbt till en mardröm. När de till slut når fram har de våldsamma stormarna, den brännande solen, hungern och törsten drivit dem båda till gränsen av vansinne. Och hatet gör sig på nytt påmint...

I juli 1943 flyr den japanska armén. En pluton i Burma sjunger för att hålla moralen uppe. Inspirationen får de från den självlärde lutaspelaren, Mizushima. Vid krigets slut skickas Mizushima för att övertala ett japanskt förband som gömt sig uppe i bergen att ge upp. Han misslyckas, britterna anfaller, och de flesta dör. Mizushima överlever och förklär sig till munk. På väg tillbaka till sin pluton blir han överväldigad av synen av alla döda japanska soldater och arbetar länge med att begrava dem, alltmedan hans vänner söker efter honom.

Following the detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military and the government clash over the demand from the Allies for unconditional surrender. Minister of the Army Anami leads the military officers who propose to fight on, even to the death of every Japanese citizen. Emperor Hirohito, however, joins with his ministers in asking the unthinkable, the peaceful surrender of Japan. When the military plots a coup to overthrow the Emperor's civilian government, Anami must face the choice between his desires and loyalty to his Emperor.

Up in Heaven, Yuki’s grandparents decide that, having turned thirteen years old, she must go down to Earth to a village that is torn by bandits and intervene to save its people. However if she does not succeed within one year she will become as insubstantial as the wind. Down in the village, Yuki is befriended by a group of orphans whose parents have all been killed by the bandits and who now subsist by begging. Yuki amazes them by taming the wild horse Blizzard. She is instrumental in getting the orphans and farmers to stand up to first the warring bandits and then Goemon, the greedy lord that owns the region. But Yuki must face her greatest challenge yet when the displeased Demon God that lives in the volcano emerges to destroy those who live beneath.

Panic arises among Allied POWs aboard a Japanese freighter when they learn that the ship is actually a decoy target for American submarines on night patrol. The prisoners unite and attack their Japanese captors just as an American sub surfaces and, not knowing the prisoners are aboard, prepares to torpedo the ship.

“In Search of Unreturned Soldiers was about former soldiers of the Japanese army who chose not to return to Japan after the war. I found several of them who had remained in Thailand. Two years later, I invited one of them to make his first return visit to Japan and documented it in Outlaw-Matsu Returns Home. During the filming, my subject Fujita asked me to buy him a cleaver so that he could kill his ‘vicious brother.’ I was shocked, and asked him to wait a day so that I could plan how to film the scene. By the next morning, to my relief, Fujita had calmed down and changed his mind about killing his brother. But I couldn’t have had a sharper insight into the ethical questions provoked by this kind of documentary filmmaking.” —Shôhei Imamura