Shield of Straw

A powerful figure in Japanese politics and business, Ninagawa, sees his granddaughter murdered, and the man suspected of the crime, Kunihide Kiyomaru, has a previous conviction for attacking and killing a girl eight years earlier. Ninagawa places advertisements in the country's major newspapers offering a substantial reward to anyone who kills the suspect, turning the whole nation into a threat. With no other way to survive, Kiyomaru decides to turn himself in, and a police escort must move him safely to Tokyo headquarters while ordinary people and professional killers alike try to claim the money.

Takashi Miike directed the film, working from a screenplay by Tamio Hayashi, with Nanako Matsushima, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Takao Osawa and Tsutomu Yamazaki among the cast. It was released in 2013 and followed Miike's Lesson of the Evil, standing as the twenty-seventh of the forty-two films he has directed, ahead of As the Gods Will. It earned about 18 million dollars worldwide.

Audience responses were moderate: on IMDb it holds 6.2/10 from around 2,800 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.3/10 from roughly 119 votes. Both figures point to a film that drew a limited but not unfavorable reaction from viewers.