A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing is psychological gender bending thriller in which a young woman takes on an abusive father, sibling rivalry, sexism, and homophobism, while knocking down the barriers facing Japanese business women in Japan using a dark and devious scheme.
Logline
With her inner circle of LGBTQ friends, a charismatic daughter schemes a hostile takeover of her heartless father's corporation. Her devious plan is to murder her twin brother and live a dual-life as both twins to obtain control of the company.
Synopsis
A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing is a psychological thriller that takes place in modern-day Tokyo, about an alpha-lesbian, Maegami Takeda, who is a twin to her brother Ichiro. She is dynamic, alluring, and who, at age 25, is the chief legal counsel for Takeda Shipping. She is the natural choice for the next CEO, but her twin brother, Ichiro, an inept manager of logistics, is next in line only because he's male. Their ultra-conservative father, Eizo Takeda, follows antiquated Japanese mores and announces Ichiro's promotion to CEO, which triggers Maegami's ruthless quest to avenge a lifetime of abuse by taking over Takeda Shipping at any cost to her or anyone else.
Maegami starts to implement a sordid plan for a hostile takeover of the company. The goal is to bring down her father's company and start the first LBGTQ controlled shipping corporation. Her takeover team, nicknamed the "Girls Club," is Maegami's circle of LGBTQ women that meets for coffee breaks in Maegami's office. The leader of the group is Hana, her assistant, and right-hand girl. Maegami's lover, Reiko, gives on-sight executive massages and teaches Maegami an ice-pick murder technique from a movie they enjoyed. Ami is Ichiro's secretary and works with her nemesis. Jenny is a young receptionist who Maegami enchants. Rounding out the group is Kai, a TV news personality who became a Maegami love interest as well. Maegami manipulates the group and never reveals the depth of her maniacal scheme to them.
Maegami does not share with anyone the key and heinous part of her plan. She fakes cancer to allow herself to change her body to double as her brother Ichiro physically. Maegami has her head shaved, a breast reduction, and a butt and hip augmentation. Maegami then uses the ice-pick method to murder her brother and dumps the body off her boat as it seems like she is helping a person scuba dive.
The murder of Ichiro allows Maegami to play both roles as her and her brother. She then has the CEO's power while impersonating Ichiro to transfer enough stocks to allow the hostile takeover to happen. The acquisition gives her father a terminal stroke that Maegami evilly enjoys.
Maegami has many unseen issues while being Ichiro, which complicates her plans to complete the deal and let Ichiro disappear. Unknown to anyone, the Yakuza had their criminal claws into Ichiro, and Maegami has to quell them first. Then as events get entangled, Maegami shows her psychotic side by eliminating anyone who is a threat to her success. She murders sweet Jenny to silence her, blackmails Kai to implicate Ami in a bogus illegal drug scheme to remove both of them. Maegami's actions are causing others to see her and Ichiro differently, even though everyone does not see the entire scope of her schemes. Reiko has a hunch since she gives massages to Maegami and Ichiro when they are both being played by Maegami. Then ironically, Reiko kills Maegami while impersonating Ichiro with the same ice-pick move that Maegami used to kill the actual Ichiro. Hana and Reiko, whose love relationship and partnership to work against Maegami were unknown to anyone, leave the country, with an off-shore bank account, as the clear winners in this story.
A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing - Descriptions of Major Characters
The Takeda Family Maegami Takeda - Maegami is our protagonist, who is the dominating force in this screenplay. She has a dynamic personality to go with an intelligent mind with an alluring physical presence. Maegami is driven for equality for women and the LGBTQ community and is a lovable character that we are rooting to turn the tables on her father and brother. Maegami has a circle of friends that she uses her sensual charms and manipulates them to assist her in the hostile takeover of her family’s corporation from her father (Eizo) and twin brother (Ichiro). Maegami’s character arc changes to the dark side as her obsession to avenge her mother’s death and punish her father and brother take over her life. We see her fake cancer, mutilate her body to live as both her brother and herself, murder her brother, ruins her father’s life, and cold-bloodedly kill the innocent, sweet Jenny just to keep her quiet. When she becomes Ichiro, she is the “sheep in wolf’s clothing.” The change in Maegami demonstrates that our obsessions can lead us to cross the fine line of evil and depravity to reach our goals.
Ichiro Takeda - Ichiro is the twin brother of Maegami. The sibling rivalry with Maegami makes him one of the antagonists of this story. His snobbish rich guy character that everyone hates turns into a character we feel sympathy for as we see the hidden side of Ichiro when Maegami masquerades as him. Ichiro is a soft submissive person that uses a touch macho exterior to please his father and is the first “sheep in wolf’s clothing.” The pressure of trying to live up to his father’s expectations and the inability of him to match Maegami’s superior business intellect makes Ichiro’s an emotional mess. The only person to see any positive qualities is his secretary, Ami, who knows there is a sensitive side to him.
Eizo Takeda - Maegami and Ichiro’s father is the antagonist in this story. Eizo is a conservative domineering father and CEO of Takeda Shipping that is an absolute dictator in handling his business and family. The workers all fear him as he is irrational when he makes decisions concerning people. He follows the old Japanese cultural mores that come in conflict with the modern Japanese world. Eizo has been an abusive husband and father, using physical and psychological abuse to damage both Maegami and Ichiro. He hated Maegami’s mother, the reason for her death, and despised Maegami because she reminds him of her. Eizo can handle everything except Maegami. He thinks he finally gets rid of her, but she gets the last laugh and ruins his business and his life.
Maiko Takeda - Maiko is the mother of Ichiro and Maegami and is only briefly in the story, but her presence is in Maegami throughout the screenplay.
Hantanka Hayashi - Hayashi is the dear friend of Maegami’s mother. He promised Maiko that he would make sure her prenup and will gets carried out, which protected Maegami and ensured she had a successful future. Maegami then turns to Hayashi when she plans the hostile takeover of her father’s business. Hayashi is thrilled that Maegami has grown into this powerful, assertive businesswoman and jumps at the chance to take advantage of his lifelong nemesis, Eizo Takeda. The realization that Hayashi takes control of his business is the spark that causes Eizo’s heart attack and terminal comatose state.
The Girls Club Maegami’s inner circle of LBGTQ women.
Hana Natsuko - Hana is Maegami’s closest friend who has known her since college. She is Maegami’s right-hand girl and assists her in all aspects of business and personal life. Hana is extremely business savvy and is the brains behind the hostile takeover. We learn late in the story that Maegami and Hana were a dynamic couple at one time and were engaged to be married. They broke off the engagement when Hana caught her having sex with a flight attendant. The breakup did not affect their working arrangement, and their friendship reconciled over time. Maegami didn’t realize that Hana had been planning her revenge since their breakup and was working with Reiko to embezzle funds into an offshore account and frame Maegami for the actions. It is her relationship with Reiko that ends up being the force to turn the tables on Maegami’s sordid plan for complete control.
Reiko Masami - Reiko is very similar in physical and athletic drive as Maegami. She is a masseuse at the Shiatsu Wellness Center. Maegami is introduced to Reiko by Hana, and they immediately strike up a sexual relationship. It is Reiko who teaches Maegami the ice-pick murder technique from a movie they viewed. She showed her as a joke and didn’t realize that Maegami would actually use it. Reiko is hired by Maegami to give on-sight massages at Takeda Shipping. Maegami also wants Reiko to be a corporate spy for her as she can get information from the other executives, especially Ichiro, during the massages. Maegami doesn’t realize that Reiko is spying on her for Hana and their separate plans. It is Reiko that realizes that Maegami is also dressed as Ichiro and uses the same ice-pick murder technique to eliminate Maegami.
Ami Ryoko - Ami is Ichiro’s secretary and has more interactions with Ichiro then any of the other girls, including Maegami. She has always been secretly infatuated with Ichiro as Ami is bisexual while the other girls in the Girls Club are lesbians. Ami agrees to spy on the Girls Club for Eizo and Ichiro to get the romantic acceptance from Ichiro. She knows the somewhat perverted tastes Ichiro has by the internet sites he visits but just sees that as his sensitive side. Ami does not realize that Ichiro was really Maegami when she spills the beans on the Girls Club plot for a hostile takeover. Maegami then frames Ami with illegal drug dealings with the Yakuza, the organized crime gang of Japan. The arrest of Ami gets her out of the way for Maegami to take full control.
Jenny Kumiko - Jenny is the cute, perky, and youngest member of the Girls Club and the receptionist for the third floor, which is the location of Maegami and Ichiro’s offices. She has a super crush on Maegami and is her private yoga instructor. The other girls all realize that Maegami is interested in Jenny as a long-term type partner as she is always taking care of Jenny when she can. Jenny is a fun girl that everyone likes to be around. She is emotional and caring for Maegami when she finds out that Maegami supposedly has cancer. Jenny can not handle the sight of Maegami half-dressed as Ichiro and half as Maegami. We see just how much a psychopath Maegami is when Jenny gets killed by Maegami to keep her quiet. Maegami pushing innocent Jenny down three stories to her death shows the evil in Maegami.
Kai Makoto - Kai is the beautiful ex-Miss Japan who is a television news personality. Maegami meets Kai in a television interview, and the two are immediately attracted to each other. Kai and Maegami are a trendy couple posted on many social media sites. Maegami is using Kai for her connections and publicity for her personal brand. In the end, Maegami blackmails Kai to use her contacts with the police to get Ami arrested and to give a news report to damage Ami’s reliability as a witness. Kai caught by surprise and submitted to the blackmail to save her career. Kai reaches out to Hana and Reiko that they have to stop Maegami as she seems to plan to eliminate all the people connected to the takeover. Kai also thinks that Ichiro and Maegami are working together. At the conclusion of this saga, Kai gives the final report and gets a promotion to get her own investigative television show, due to her work on the Takeda story.