Warlords Kagetora and Takeda each wish to prevent the other from gaining hegemony in feudal Japan. The two samurai leaders pursue one another across the countryside, engaging in massive battles of cavalry and infantry. Younger and less brutal, Kagetora must find the strength to be as brutal as his opponent, but at what cost?

A composer who can no longer compose music is led back to the past by his mother's voice. As a boy in the past, he encounters various characters, including a wild samurai and a king of the mountain forests, and arrives at the Paradise of Paradises.