A troubled jazz pianist with a violent past, aided by an American branch of Japanese Yakuza, fights for his life against the mob boss who wants him dead.

SYNOPSIS:

Phil Shepherd, a jazz pianist at the DEEP BLUE CLUB, a nightclub in New York City, is dissatisfied with his job. Feeling underpaid and unappreciated, Phil acts out, harmlessly but provocatively, wasting time on stage, talking back to his manager, and showing disrespect to his boss, the nightclub's owner. Complicating matters is the relationship between Phil and his boss, Peter Laurence, who took him in off the street as a teenager and gave him a place to live, and to work.

One night, in the middle of a performance, Phil witnesses Mr. Laurence commit a brutal murder, and the rumors he's heard are seen to be true. Phil's surrogate father is a dangerous criminal, a mob boss who's not afraid to kill. Mr. Laurence, unwilling to leave any witnesses, saddles Phil with his two guards, Mueller and Elliot, on an errand to "tie up loose ends," thereby sending Phil into a deadly trap. Phil's life, however, is spared by a chance encounter with a trio of Japanese gangsters, with whom he discovers he shares a common enemy.

Kitano, the head of the Yakuza ring in New York, takes Phil on as an ally in his efforts to assassinate Mr. Laurence, with whom Kitano nurses a bitter, and very personal, rivalry. Phil guides the Yakuza on a game of cat-and-mouse, chasing Mr. Laurence to the Deep Blue Club, then to the safehouse at 238 Norfolk, where he's supposed to be holed up, with an entire personal army at his defense. In the aftermath of the tremendous battle, where the Yakuza and Laurence's army both take substantial losses, Kitano dies of his wounds, leaving Phil in charge of his forces. Finally, finding that Mr. Laurence is not at the safehouse, Phil discovers instead a cryptic message, leading him at last to the docks where they first met.

Phil confronts Mr. Laurence, they fight, and Phil mercilessly takes his revenge on the man who betrayed his trust and set him up to die. Back with the Yakuza, he is thanked for his efforts, and, after some hesitation, officially made a brother in their organization.