新婚之夜，清水的一方豪杰次郎长（中井贵一 饰）被迫告别妻子阿蝶（铃木京香 饰），与大政（岸部一徳 饰）、鬼吉、法印大五郎（笹野高史 饰）等一班好兄弟展开为期一年的流浪修行。几经辗转，次郎长一行回到家乡，他的名声反而更大，先后收下了石松（温水洋一 饰）和政五郎（北村一辉 饰）这样性格各异的好兄弟，还有许多人慕名投至麾下。但在辉煌之时，次郎长一种难免成为众矢之的。黑驹新兴势力胜藏（佐藤浩市 饰）野心勃勃，宿敌三马政（竹内力 饰）又卷土重来，更有内部叛徒兴风作浪，次郎长及其好友们面临巨大的考验……
本片根据村上元三的原作改编。

Asahiyama Zoo in Hokkaido, is the northernmost zoo in Japan. The unpopular zoo welcomes a new zoo keeper, young Yoshida (Yasuhi Nakamura), who has more affection for insects than people after years of being bullied at school when he was young. Yoshida soon realizes that Asahiyama Zoo is facing a financial crisis and the zoo director Takizawa (Toshiyuki Nishida) has been doing everything in his power to save the zoo from closing down. Moved by Takizawa's passion, Yoshida and other zoo keepers came to share the zoo director's belief that one's dreams can come true, and together they tackle this seemingly impossible task of revitalizing Asahiyama. A breakthrough arrives in the form of “Behavioral Exhibition,†a method that is pioneered by Ashiyama's zoo keepers and which eventually makes the zoo renowned throughout the world.

A celebration of the ancient art of Japanese rakugo, roughly translated as “comic storytelling”. The film is interspersed with numerous funerals and wakes, songs, dances, and often disgustingly crude jokes.