The only elephant in Japan dies, and his his keeper, Chishû Ryû, is heartbroken. Not so the staff manning the lab where he brings it. In fact, they cook it and eat it, even forcing some on Ryû without telling him what it is. When he finds out, he rushes home, where his wife reminds him that when he was in Siam and some of his fellow handlers ate elephant, they died within thirty hours. He rushes back to the lab, and they check the records. It's glanders, fatal to humans within thirty hours. Calls to clinics turn up no serums. They prepare to die, each in his own way.
It's a fine example of peribathos, the sort of effect where a dramatic or pathetic effect is deliberately rendered so awkwardly that it becomes funny. Chishû Ryû Is is particularly good with his slow-witted reactions, but the other actors and actresses, all of whose roles are clearly drawn, are amusing.
