Based on the Jo Sasaki's 2007 first novel in the so-called "The Hokkaido Trilogy" and inspired by corruption in the police force governing Japan's northern island.The Laughing Policeman is set in Sapporo and starts with the discovery of a policewoman’s body in a safe house. The place is well known for being used by cops for various activities and immediately the dead cop’s ex-lover Sgt Suguru Tsukui (Hiroyuki Miyasako) is suspected. Oddly, senior officials order him to be shot on sight – which just seems disproportionate to many of Tsukui’s colleagues. The fact that there are rumours of a cop having agreed to testify against police corruption and expose secret bank accounts used by the police to launder money seems to add to suspicions that Tsukui has been set up.So a group of his colleagues start an investigation into the murder to try and clear Tsukui’s name. They have very little time to do so because they the equivalent of the SWAT team are hunting him down and adding to the tension.
