Cut to eight years later, where a vengeful teenage Hannibal, now played by the 22-year-old Frenchman Gaspard Ulliel, is tormented by nightmares about his sister's awful fate as he travels throughout Europe in search of a home. The young Hannibal by chance encounters out Lady Murasaki, the fabulously rich and beautiful Japanese widow of his Parisian uncle (Gong Li), who gives him a place to stay and helps him deal with his dreams over the fate of his sister.

She teaches Hannibal a few positions, from samurai to lotus, and, as time goes by, he becomes skilled in the arts of swordsmanship, illustration, cooking and, later, medicine. When Lecter gets word that old enemies (lead by Rhys Ifans) are within reach, he packs up and strikes revenge in epic proportions.

The remainder of the movie is spent watching Hannibal systematically, one-by-one, track down the perpetrators of the original crime: They ate her, so I shall eat them. Dominic West ("The Wire"), as French police inspector Pascal Popil, is also on the hunt for the criminals to bring them to justice, but part of us wants Hannibal to get to them first.