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The delightful comedy Tropical Fish (Redai yu) was the debut of a young Taiwanese director, Chen Yu-shun, and marked his transition from television to movies. The hero of the movie is A-chiang, a junior high schoolboy facing tremendous pressure to pass the annual entrance examination for entrance to senior high school. A-chiang has been struggling with his grades, and he has suffered the many punishments meted out by his disappointed father and strict school teacher. A-chiang finds refuge in his imagination. Since he was a child, he has been fantasising about a superhero, King Saloman, and his rival, One-Thousand-Year-Old Golden Shark. A-chiang might have read or heard the story a long time ago, or perhaps he just made it up in order to amuse himself, but somewhere down the line he has come to believe in it. Throughout the movie, A-chiang's daydreams become entangled with reality, creating surreal humour. We see A-chiang (dreaming of himself as King Saloman) accidentally kidnapped by two gangsters (representing the Golden Shark) as a result of his attempt to rescue a little boy, Dao-nan, whom the gangsters meant to kidnap in the first place. Unfortunately, though, Dao-nan's stepfather does not want him back, so A-chiang becomes the kidnappers, only potential source of ransom money.

Kurata Kenta lives with his parents, Taichi and Keiko, and younger sister, Nana, in a house in the outskirts. He is a struggling commercial artist with his own firm. But because he is timid and a coward, he cannot assert himself and is not successful in his work. Kenta takes after his father in that aspect, but he does not want to be spineless and unreliable like him. The relationship between father and son has soured. One evening, Kenta is standing in line for the train at a station platform when a man jumps the queue and shoves a female aside. Kenta would usually silently let such situations pass, but on this day, he corners the man and warns him. The man tries to resist, but the passengers around him also agree with Kenta. At that moment, a young lady picks up the cigarettes that the man had dropped, hands it over and suggests that the man leaves. Kenta is shocked by his own uncharacteristic behaviour because he is venting his anger about his job. After that, Kenta takes the train and bus to go back home, but along the way, he realises that he is with the man who jumped the queue. Fear swells in Kenta who jumps out at the bus stop in front of his house and the man follows behind. Kenta runs and shakes him off. When he reaches home, he tells his parents and sister about the incident. He is cautioned by Taichi not to get involved in unnecessary things. However, that day is the turning point. The next morning, Kenta is awakened by Nana’s panicky voice. The flowers in the flower bed have been entirely uprooted. But Kenta and Taichi both head to their workplaces because it is office hours. When Kenta goes to the train station after work, the young woman who had made the man back off yesterday is there. Kenta talks to her about the resentful man following him as well as the flower bed incident. Then the young woman hands him her name card and asks if he would like to look into it. She is Kando Asuka, a magazine reporter. At the same time that the harassment begins, Taichi discovers alleged improprieties at his company and worries about what he should do. As Kenta and his family attempt to identify the stalker, several questionable people emerge around them.

The old-timer Bae Tae Shik butt heads with Han Jin Woo acting as the genius medical examiner. The two always differ in opinion, but whenever a case needs to be solved they respect each other’s strengths and act as an unbeatable duo.