Influenced by Bresson and Mizoguchi, Farewell takes a detached view of its protagonist Yukio (Jinpachi Nezu), an ex-farmer working as a dump-truck driver in Kashima. Haunted by the drowning of his two young sons, whose names he has had tattooed on his back in penance, and locked in a sibling rivalry with his traditional but urbane younger brother who lives in Tokyo, Yukio has become an amphetamine-addicted loner at odds with his family, friends and colleagues — an alienation that, as the film's title suggests, seems to derive from the industrialization of his farming community.