シリーズ第18作にして最終作。盛夏の北海道を舞台に、亡き弟分の妻を守るためダム工事の利権を独り占めしようとする悪徳業者と男の闘いを繰り広げる。大型ダンプ同士の追跡や抗争など迫力ある映像が見どころ。末広勝治は鉄雄、五郎の弟分と共に網走刑務所に転じてきたが、古顔の源治一味が事あるごとに因縁をつけてきた。一ヶ月後に仮釈放を控えた鉄雄のために、末広はじっと耐えるが、それを見かねた鉄雄はついに源治の喧嘩を受けて立ち、命を落とす。

さびれた呉服屋の店先に並ぶ品名札の美しい文字に魅せられた銀行員・川上克次。やがて主人を喪い店をたたんだ未亡人・勝村久子は、別の場所でひっそりと「書道教授」なる看板を掲げていた。ホステス・神谷文子との関係で悩んでいた川上は、その書道教室に通い始めるのだが……。

Sisters Yoshie and Kikue are two Geisha who are abducted by a mysterious organization to be transformed into murderous cyborg assassins.

A beautiful girl, Yōko, gets lost one night during an air raid and is taken in by an orphanage. Eventually, she is reunited with her own family and goes home to live with them. But there, an unexpected fate awaits her as she is subjected to horrific brutality from these people who are tortured by a past mistake.

The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ei ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.