Hakai is an anguished, revealing film about the little known caste system in Japan. An "outcast" is one whose ancestors performed lowly tasks considered unclean by Buddhists; these include butchers, leather craftsmen, gravediggers, and others. The story, taken from a controversial 1906 novel that has become a classic of modern Japanese literature, concerns Ushimatsu (Raizo Ichikawa), a young teacher in a small mountain community, who is torn between his dying father's commandment, "Hide your identity as an Outcast," and his sense of the injustice of the system. Slowly and painfully his allegiance is drawn toward another figure of respect, a well known writer who has "come out" as an Outcast, and the young man makes the decision which forces him to leave his community. Cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa's breathtaking compositions usher Ushimatsu along a vast CinemaScope plane of discovery, moving from dark, bleak imagery to snow-covered mountains and forests as his tortured life opens up.