"TOHO'S 40TH ANNIVERSARY PRODUCTION" "TOHO CO., LTD." "A TOHO-HAIYUZA PRODUCTION" "THE LONG DARKNESS (SHINOBUGAWA)" "Produced by SATO Masayuki and SHIINO Hideyuki" "Based on the book by MIURA Tetsuo Screenplay by HASEBE Keiji and KUMAI Kei" "Art direction by KIMURA Takeo Cinematography by KURODA Kiyomi" "Music by MATSUMURA Teizo" "Starring" "KATO Go KURIHARA Komaki" "NAGATA Yasushi, SHIN Kinzo IWASAKI Kaneko, TAKIHANA Hisako" "IGAWA Hisashi" "Directed by KUMAI Kei" "Oh, a new building like that in Fukagawa!" "It's been there quite a while." "I sound like a country girl." "I first met Shino the evening we had a farewell party for graduating students at the dormitory." "Hey, hey..." "Anyway, we only have one thing to regret." "In these four years, we managed to visit almost every drinking establishment in the neighbourhood." "We'll have to return home without once setting foot in only one, Shinobugawa!" "Right?" "Shinobugawa?" "What, that small restaurant?" "Away with the formalities, it's not your style!" "Anyway, drink up." "Hey, Ushioda." "Yeah, it's on the expensive side." "Right?" "You can't drink there, the booze's all watery." "So you guys have been there?" "Hey, hey!" "Ushioda set out for Shinobugawa in secret one evening..." "He made passes on the restaurant's most popular girl, got softly rejected, and came back all depressed." "What girl's that?" "No idea." "Shinobugawa..." "A good name." "Shinobugawa." "Hey, let's go there now!" "Good!" "Let's go." "Hey, you're not coming?" "No." "What's the matter?" "It's our last night." "Let's spend it together." "Well, you go ahead." "I'll come later." "Good." "At the university hospital, there's a senior student who's specializing in genetics, so I told him about my dead brothers and Kayo's illness." "I asked if there's any hope of recovery." "In Kayo's case, it's apparently something called ancestral reversion or atavistic traits." "It's considered a mutation in contemporary medicine." "He didn't say anything straight out, but as I think about the death of my brothers," "I wonder how long will it be until a hereditary mental trait like this appears in me." "Sometimes I can't sleep at night because of the restlessness." "Kayo, what are you looking at?" "The moon." "Silly child, it's only the 1st of March." "You'll hardly see the moon tonight." "You sure look refined." "Look, this one's even better." "That rascal!" "Oh, so you are all from Aomori?" "Are you familiar with pole and line tuna fishing of Bentenjima?" "Is it practiced even now?" "Last summer I caught one weighing 260 kg!" "Dear me!" "Looked just like you!" "What a nasty man!" "No, really, he made you a compliment!" "It means you're fresh." "Right?" "Hey, look." "She's the one that gave Ushioda the brush-off." "Hey, wait a second." "Could I have a glass of ice cold water?" "Yes." "So she's the one who rejected Ushioda?" "It's a bit hard to believe." "But you can't judge people by appearances." "I don't get it, I don't get it." "Sorry to have kept you waiting." "Here you are." "You heard me talking to myself, didn't you?" "All I heard was "You can't judge people by appearances."" "I was talking about you." "It was you who gave Ushioda the brush-off, wasn't it?" "Brush-off?" "No, it was just that he was too forward." "So you'll only brush someone off if they're too forward?" "That depends on the person." "What about me?" "Well, now." "I haven't seen you before tonight, so it's hard to tell." "I see." "In that case, I'll come again tomorrow." "Please do, if it suits you." "Ask for me, and I'll be sure to see you right away." "What's your name?" "I'm Shino." "What's your name?" "I'm Shino." "The letter to Mother I had written last night had somehow become a heavy burden." "Welcome!" "Welcome!" "Some sake, and Shino, please." "Of course." "One bottle of sake!" "Got it." "Spring is great, I get all high-spirited." "Maybe this is why they call spring "spring" in English?" "You're good, mister." "How's it going, little Shino." "Whenever I see you, you look pretty as an Empress doll." "Oh..." "I'd like to line up another one beside you." "Don't you have a boyfriend?" "I'm content with the Emperor doll." "Excuse me..." "Shino!" "Yes?" "Table one." "Welcome." "Sorry about last night." "It's good that you could come." "There you are." "Do you live close by?" "In the student dormitory, in that alley." "Oh, at the end of the street?" "Yes." "I pass by there sometimes." "The students are always making a racket." "What was the occasion last night?" "Farewell party for graduating students." "Are you graduating as well?" "No, not yet." "Is that odd?" "What is?" "In fact I should've graduated already." "Shino, they're asking for you upstairs." "I see." "Where do you tend to go for drinks?" "Usually it's an oden stall under the railroad bridge, or a bar along the tracks." "Please step by here as well, once in a while!" "Shino, they're waiting upstairs." "I'm in the middle of something important." "Make some excuse, will you?" "There." "Shino." "Yes?" "I said I would come, so I did, but it's just for tonight." "I thought I'd hear you say "yes" just once more, and then leave." "During the day," "I doubted Shino." "I couldn't help but suspect that her kindness was part of the job." "Mom, this doll, how long have we had it?" "I wonder, how long could it have been?" "The dead grandfather must have known, but I have no idea." "But when evening came," "I couldn't doubt Shino anymore." "I couldn't help but believe Shino's kindness was genuine." "So you are well familiar with that neighbourhood." "Well..." "Do you go to Fukagawa every now and then?" "Two or three times a month, sometimes even as often as every Sunday." "Well, in that case, you must know all about it." "Leaving aside the route to the university, it is the part of Tokyo I'm most familiar with." "Fukagawa is where I was born." "Later on I was evacuated to Tochigi." "It burned to the ground and they say there's nothing left of the old Fukagawa." "I wonder if that's true." "How about going to Fukagawa together?" "Yes!" "But I hardly ever get time off." "That's a pity." "Would you be willing to wait until Servants' Holiday?" "A whole month from now?" "Yes." "It has changed completely." "I feel like a stranger here." "Don't worry." "It'll gradually come back to you as we go along." "After all, this is where you are from." "That's right." "Let's go to the place where you last saw your brother." "After that I'll show you the place where I was born." "But I wonder which of the two is closer?" "Mine's in Kiba." "Mine's in Susaki." "Shino wanted to visit the place where I'd last seen my elder brother who was never to return home." "Something must have got into your eye because of the wind." "Please use this." "Thanks." "The wind at Kiba is full of invisible sawdust that can sting your eyes if you aren't used to it." "The first time I walked through Kiba with my brother, he had made fun of my tears." "Walking side by side with Brother, my heart was bursting with joy." "It was surely because of the wind that tears still welled up in my eyes." "This is as far as we go." "Anyway, that's what Kiba is like." "There's nothing here." "What a nice breeze." "It's as if I've come home to Fukagawa at last." "Shall we go?" "You must be bored." "But we came all the way!" "Let's stay a little while longer." "Is this the place?" "Yes." "After the war, for some reason or another, my brother joined a lumber company here." "When I arrived in Tokyo four years later," "I started university with Brother paying for the tuition, but in early spring seven years ago..." "Brother!" "What's the matter?" "Money?" "Yes." "You'll find the bankbook and the seal in the desk drawer in the office, take them and use as much as you have to." "Got it." "I have things to do today, so see you later." "Thanks." "Hey, wait a second." "Yes, Brother?" "Good, you can go now." "Don't spend too much." "Was that the last you heard of your brother?" "Yes." "What happened to him after that?" "He died." "Well, let's go." "It's just a reservoir, after all." "We won't change anything by looking at it." "Ever since I was a child, when asked about my brothers," "I would always reply that they are dead." "So that I wouldn't need to explain anything." "Ah, I remember." "Now I know where we are!" "This is Susaki Bridge." "Susaki Paradise..." ""Paradise" sounds cheap to me." "Oh merciful Buddha, oh merciful Buddha..." "I couldn't have dreamed, that one day, with no hint of rain in the air, I would be walking in broad daylight in a neighbourhood like this, sharing a white parasol with the woman I fancy." "Candy, candy!" "This is it." "The house I was born in stood right here." "My mother used to operate a shooting range here." "I'm the daughter of a shooting range owner from the red-light district." "It's all right." "There's nothing wrong with that." "Look at it closely." "So you won't forget." "How long did you live here?" "Until the summer I was eleven." "Hey, miss." "Hand me some more pellets, will you..." "If you guys don't have any money, just say so, and ask politely." "Pardon me." "Kindly let us have fun!" "Hey!" "Thanks a bunch." "There you are." "Look at that!" "Thinking she's a real beauty!" "Young man, come on upstairs." "I'll show you a good time." "Eyes up here, playboy!" "Be it great lords or us, we're all naked when taking a bath..." "I don't wish to speak ill of these people, but courtesans weren't like that in the old days." "When it comes to professional pride, they were in a different class then." "They all seem to think it's a joke these days." "It makes me uneasy just to look at them." "I suppose it's because times have changed, but I really can't stand these amateurish girls." "I'm sure my father would be disappointed." "Did I say something funny?" "No." "It's just..." "I guess I take after my father..." "What's your father like?" "My father?" "He's a lazy good-for-nothing." "He's in poor health now, so I shouldn't be too hard on him." "I don't know much about it, but even though he was the eldest son of a dyer, he didn't study much when he was young, so eventually he was disinherited." "He ran wild, threw away his education, and did nothing but drink, saying" ""I'm no good, I'm a failure."" "But even then, on the day of the Benten Shrine festival, he would dress up in fine clothes." "In the red-light district, people used to call him "Professor Atariya"." "Atariya?" "It was the name of my mother's shooting gallery." "Apparently he used to look after the less fortunate courtesans and give them advice." "One of them who was friendly with me was called Onaka of the Tonero House." "She had consumption and couldn't work anymore, but her contract still had a while to run," "so she used to go to my father for advice quite often." "In the end, though, there was nothing anyone could do for her," "and on the Hachiman Festival day, she killed herself by putting poison in tokoroten jelly and eating it." "Now, the Tonero people were the most heartless lot in the whole district." "They were scared, and none of them wanted to clear up the mess, so my father took care of everything from beginning to end." "I was always doing things like that, ever since I was a child." "Haven't we walked a long way!" "Yes..." "But now my mind is free." "Now you know everything about me." "I feel complete." "It's a good feeling." "Hey, let's go to Asakusa!" "Asakusa?" "You mean, to take the train to Tochigi?" "No, just for fun." "Seeing Susaki suddenly made me want to go there." "My father used to love Asakusa." "He often took me there." "We'd see a film, then I'd ride on the merry-go-round in Hanayashiki Park, and on the way home we'd always drop in to the Kamiya Bar." "I'd have some wine and he would drink Denki Bran." "But since it's your day off, perhaps you'd better go back to Tochigi." "Your father and the others are waiting for you." "Yes..." "But since it's my day off, I want to do something I can't normally do." "Yes, I'd like to go to Asakusa." "Let's do whatever you want." "Great!" "Asakusa too has changed completely." "They used to have roasted beans and rice crackers, my father would often buy them." "How about these, how about these?" "They're the best in Japan!" "Excellent Chinese lanterns, they bring good luck!" "Once prosperous things are gradually falling into obscurity and will eventually disappear altogether." "New things come into bud to replace them, but these too will be gone one day." "These days, you can't be at all sentimental about things like that." "It's the course of nature." "Does it make you sad?" "A bit..." "But it's fine." "It's fine." "You're not going to say a prayer?" "I'm not comfortable with it." "But this is a place you come to pray." "I understand that, but..." "The Bon Festival is celebrated in order to save our ancestors' spirits of the past seven generations from the realm of the Hungry Ghosts." "So that they would look over the lives of our parents and ourselves." "My father used to say that." "That was when I trusted Shino during the day for the first time." "See you." "Yes." "That evening," "I was overcome by a sense of shame." "I felt ashamed that even though" "Shino had been so honest that day, I'd been my usual cynical self." "Shino, could you..." "The student from the dormitory asked me to give you this." "Thank you." "There are some things about my family" "I didn't mention at Fukagawa." "I'll put them down here." "My family has run a textile business for generations." "I was the youngest of six children." "One spring, when I was six years old, on my birthday, of all days, my second eldest sister killed herself." "Well, Tetsuro, put your hands together and pray." "Sister!" "My sister Mina loved a man she wasn't supposed to love, and, in her despair, drowned herself in the sea off Tsugaru." "In late autumn that same year, my eldest brother disappeared." "He was terribly neurotic and probably couldn't bear his grief over our sister." "We still don't know where he is, so we assume he must be dead, too." "In the winter of the same year, my eldest sister Aya killed herself." "She was blaming herself for the death of our sister." "She laid her head on her koto and poisoned herself." "What happened to Aya?" "She died." "To me, death was nothing more than one type of shame." "The death and misfortune of my brother and sisters was the source of all humiliation." "Oh merciful Buddha, oh merciful Buddha, oh merciful Buddha, oh merciful Buddha..." "My remaining brother was a capable, upright person." "He's the one who worked in Fukagawa." "But at the end of spring seven years ago, that brother went back home, asking for money to set up his own lumber company." "He not only took our family's miserable fortune, but borrowed from our relatives as well, and then he ran off with the money." "I have no idea why." "My shame shook me to the very core." "It was the shame of our whole family, but also shame at my own foolishness for having no inkling of his dark ambitions." "I'm sorry I lied to you at Kiba." "The betrayal by my brother really hit my family hard." "My father had a stroke." "Son, you're the only one we can turn to now." "Please, be strong." "We've managed to live like common folk so far, but do you realize what people would say about us if you, too, were to do some strange thing!" "They'd say that madness runs in our blood, that we're a handicapped family." "We'd all die in misery, for sure." "For mercy's sake, don't go copying your brothers and sisters." "I beg you, son." "I was eaten up with shame." "I fled from Tokyo and spent three years as a junior high school teacher in a fishing village near my hometown." "Then I quit and spent another year hiding in the village where my father had been born." "Eventually I decided to enter university once more and returned to Tokyo." "This is the reason I'm so far behind the others." "I'll be 27 in March next year." "But I've never celebrated my birthday." "Somehow it feels like a day of misfortune for me and my family." "On that day three years ago, I felt depressed and went back to Fukagawa." "That's when I started walking around there." "Since then, I always go to Fukagawa when my spirits are low." "It rekindles my anger toward my brother, and before I know it, I feel like a man again." "Now you know everything about me, too." "This is from Shino." "Thank you." "Let's celebrate your birthday next year." "Shino" "I'm sorry." "It's fate." "Otherwise, the fall of one of us wouldn't have prompted so many of us to follow the example with no regard to the others." "I sometimes think the blood of us siblings must be the cause of our ruin." "I believe everyone has something in his blood." "Me, I don't know what unlucky blood runs through my body." "But..." "But what?" "You're saying, however unlucky the blood, one should defiantly live one's life?" "That's impossible." "However bright your hopes, it'll come eventually, out of nowhere." "It could be my ruin." "I hate the idea of fate." "But however much I deny it, it remains a fact." "A hard fact, clearly proved by medicine." "If I was that way as well," "I'd have to die." "But I don't want to die." "Please, you can't die either!" "Shino, I apologize." "I didn't invite you here to say things like that." "Even the flowers of this park will be dead before long when autumn comes." "For Shino's sake, I decided to live this dazzling height of summer to the fullest." "Ushioda..." "Is it true you're returning home?" "Yes." "What happened?" "My family made a big loss in a fishing venture and went bankrupt." "What about university?" "I'll quit." "I see." "You're going to Shinobugawa a lot, aren't you?" "You should give it up." "Doesn't Shino have a man already?" "You didn't know?" "I'm not saying it as a parting shot, as a kind of revenge for having to drop out." "Don't get me wrong." "I heard it from a reliable source." "I even know the name of the fiance." "What is it?" "Motomura Yukifusa." "I couldn't believe a word of what Ushioda said." "Yet my anxiety grew of its own accord, filling my mind with dark clouds of doubt." "I felt as though I'd been betrayed." "Toki, call Shino, please." "Yes." "What on earth is the matter?" "You know a man called Motomura?" "Motomura Yukifusa." "Who told you about him?" "It doesn't matter." "Is it true you're engaged to this man?" "Tell me!" "I will." "I'll tell you everything." "But not now, not here." "Wait for me on the railway bridge at seven o'clock this evening." "I'll ask the proprietress for an hour off." "I promise I'll be there." "So please wait till then." "At Susaki, you said you'd told me everything." "Was that a lie?" "No." "I just didn't think it was worth mentioning." "I would never..." "I would never tell a lie, even if my life depended on it." "Could you make it six, not seven?" "I can't wait until seven." "All right." "I'll be there at six." "I promise." "Shino?" "Come here, please." "The sales manager says that" "Mr. Motomura is a very capable car salesman." "He earns a considerable income and has an upright character." "If you married him, you could become really happy." "It's a good proposal." "Make a decision, Shino." "I have to earn money to send back home." "Would he really take care of my sick father as well?" "What are you saying?" "If you only accepted the proposal, the sales manager and Mr. Motomura would take joint responsibility for everything." "Take her." "Why hadn't I realized it sooner?" "I'll take her." "I'll take Shino!" "Even if she really is engaged, I'll just take her from her fiance." "I decided I'd have to take Shino at all costs." "I was a fool." "Motomura was now my fiance, and on my days off we'd go to see a film, or sit in a cafe." "However," "I wasn't happy at all." "Motomura was strangely keen to hurry the wedding plans along." "Have you decided upon the day of the ceremony?" "No." "Where we would have the ceremony, where we would fly for the honeymoon, that's all he ever talked about." "It all felt somehow empty to me, and I lost interest in getting married altogether." "The more he tried to hurry things along, the more I found reasons to postpone the ceremony." "And then he..." "He what?" "He tried to have me." "And?" "Did he?" "Of course not." "But he grew so persistent that I started to feel anxious, so I went to Tochigi to ask my father's advice." "You fool!" "You should refuse a guy like that right away." "He's trying to make you unavailable to marry anyone else and forcibly negotiate then." "A dirty way of doing things!" "Making us look like fools..." "You can't follow that rascal like a sheep." "But..." "The proprietress..." "What's that?" "You didn't sell your body to the proprietress." "A woman's supposed to have a woman's spirit." "You shouldn't throw your life away for such shortsighted promises." "You should get out of a marriage that's based on conditions like that." "Shino..." "Don't worry about me." "Live your life with a clear conscience." "Whether you'll be happy or not depends on the man you choose." "All right?" "Money doesn't make a person happy." "When it comes to marriage, the best way is to find someone you love more than life itself and get married without a second thought." "Please break it off with that Motomura." "All right." "Pretend it never happened." "Forget about it." "All right." "And tell your father that" "you've found a marriage partner who seems more to your liking." "Was that too forward?" "Not at all." "At the end of autumn, Shino's father took a turn for the worse." "It looks like the end for my father at last." "I'll be leaving soon." "My father has been a heavy drinker ever since he was young, and his health has only deteriorated after the death of my mother." "With only the money me and my younger brother earn, he couldn't afford to recuperate properly." "There's nothing I can do anymore." "You mustn't give up." "You have to be strong." "And whatever happens, you mustn't let it bring you down." "Yes." "I'll go part of the way with you." "Yes, I would like that." "Let's leave right away." "The sooner the better." "The train leaves from Asakusa, right?" "Yes." "Please read this after the train has left." "Send a telegram if you need me." "I'll be there right away." "Thank you." "I have an urgent request." "I would like you to meet my father before he dies." "I would feel sorry for my parents if they both died without meeting you." "I would be sad for myself as well." "I would like to introduce you to my father, at least." "At least he can die in the knowledge that his daughter is in good hands." "It's selfish of me to ask, but would you come on the one o'clock train tomorrow?" "I'll send my youngest sister Tami to meet you at the station." "Also, there's something I couldn't tell you before." "We live in a shrine." "A Shinto shrine." "When we were bombed out of Fukagawa and evacuated to Tochigi, we had nowhere to live." "So we were given temporary shelter at the shrine and eventually took up residence there." "I hope you won't be put off by that." "Please, please come." "Then I'll see you tomorrow." "I hope you can make it in time." "Or if you can't, at least come and see my dead father's face." "Shino" "How is your father now?" "The doctor says there's no hope, but he's still alive." "Well, that's a relief." "Shino says she won't let father die till he's seen you." "Tami, is this a shortcut?" "No, it's the long way around." "Why are we going the long way around?" "Well, Father might die the moment you arrive." "To prolong, even by just a few hours, a life about to be swallowed up by the void, for the sake of someone as powerless as I am..." "It felt strange to me." "They're back, those crows!" "I was sure that" "Shino's father had died." "Here I am." "Welcome." "We were waiting for you." "Did I make it in time?" "Yes." "We've managed to keep him alive until now." "That..." "That's my brother's workshop." "Workshop?" "He's a broom-maker." "It's this way." "Father." "Father." "He's here, he's here." "Father, Father!" "Shino's father was clearly dying." "He's come all this way..." "Don't you understand, Father?" "Do you?" "It's Shino's man, it's Shino's man!" "Father, Father!" "Father!" "Father, it's Shino's man." "He's here." "Father." "Father!" "Look, Father!" "He's right next to you!" "Father." "I am Shino's father." "Don't do that." "You're fine as you are." "I'm an old fool who couldn't even raise his own children properly." "I'm a worthless man, but you take good care of Shino, won't you." "I beg you." "Can you see him?" "Can you, Father?" "Can you see him?" "Yes, I see him." "Yes, but what do you think?" "What do you think, Father?" "He's a good man." "He said he could see you." "He said you're a good man." "The next day, Shino's father died." "For the first time, I saw a person die a normal death right before my eyes." "Being accustomed to the unnatural ways of dying in my family," "I couldn't help but feel that this death carried a profound meaning." "I felt that it was a death that let Shino choose me and begin a new life." "After their father's death, Shino and her siblings had nowhere to live." "Their home was returned to the shrine authority and the family had to live apart." "Brother, here's a wedding present." "I don't have anything, so I made this for you." "Here you are." "This is the first time I've seen your work." "It's really beautiful." "Thank you." "Shino's brother moved into a broom-making company as resident craftsman, the sisters moved in with distant relatives, and I took care of Shino." "On New Year's Eve, I took Shino home on the night train from Ueno." "After thirty-five days of mourning," "Shino and I would realize her father's wish, that she should find someone she loved and get married without a second thought." "It's your first time in Tohoku?" "Yes." "People live under a low sky here..." "It's a dark place." "I don't mind that." "But I wonder if I'll manage it all right." "What?" "It'll be fine." "Cold, isn't it?" "No." "Well, well..." "I am Shino." "Welcome." "You must have been cold." "Please, wear these." "Thank you." "You too, put these on." "Thanks." "It's a cold place." "Welcome." "You needn't have come to meet us in this weather." "What, how could I not come to meet my son's bride?" "There's a taxi waiting." "Please." "Let's go." "Yes." "Come, come." "I wonder if we can get through in this snow." "I've got my son's bride here." "We've got to get through!" "Well!" "Your son's bride on New Year's Day, that's grand." "Stopping halfway would be a bad omen!" "We'll get there all right." "Welcome, welcome." "Let's keep the greetings for later." "Come on inside." "Yes." "Been snowing since last night, doesn't matter how often we clear it." "Are you sure you should be doing that?" "Why not?" "He won't listen, no matter what we say." "Well." "Well, well." "I am Shino." "Nice to meet you." "The pleasure is ours." "Welcome." "You've come all the way to this snowy countryside." "Shino, come on under the kotatsu already." "Please." "Yes." "I wonder if these will suit your tastes, but..." "Thanks so much." "It's chilly so sit at the kotatsu." "Come on." "Dad." "Oh, thanks a lot." "Kayo?" "I wonder." "Kayo." "Kayo?" "Kayo." "Kayo, what on earth are you doing here?" "I can't find the sweater" "I knitted for Tetsuro last spring." "A thing like that, you can look for it later." "Shino has arrived." "Come and join the rest of us." "No way!" "Someone like me..." "She'll be your sister-in-law." "What are you saying?" "Shino, eat anything you want." "Yes." "Well, this way, this way." "This is Tetsuro's elder sister." "I am Shino." "Nice to meet you." "I'm Kayo." "Oh!" "I'm sorry!" "Not at all, I'm the one who placed it there." "Shino." "Please, I'll take care of it." "Kayo, where were you?" "Tetsuro, I knitted a sweater for you." "It's beautiful work, Kayo." "Kayo, from now on, Shino will take care of things like that." "I just thought we're celebrating and..." "Of course, we're celebrating." "Thanks, Sister." "It's beautiful." "Regarding the wedding, we thought we'd hold a private ceremony tomorrow evening." "The relatives live far away, and there aren't many people we know well in the neighbourhood." "Yes." "Oh, it's quite late already." "Well, time to prepare dinner." "Yes." "Oh, no, Shino, you're the bride, so just sit down and relax." "Please let me help you." "It's all right." "I've got Kayo to help." "You just rest yourself." "But..." "Mother!" "Shino wants to help." "Can't you let her do something?" "What are you saying, son?" "I'm not going to ask my daughter-in-law to work in the kitchen when she's only just arrived." "What would people think?" "It's all right." "Shino isn't like other daughters-in-law." "She would find it strange for a young wife not to work." "Let people think what they like!" "You've spent your life worrying about appearances." "Now that Shino's here, it's time to stop!" "Just let her help." "Wouldn't you enjoy making dinner together with your newly arrived daughter-in-law?" "Well, I suppose you're right." "But it's local cuisine..." "I don't know anything about it, but I hope you'll teach me." "Please." "Please let me do something." "Well, take some pickles out, then." "Yes." "Shino, those things are cold and will make your hands numb." "Not at all." "You've done well, son." "Yes." "I had a good idea from your letters, but until I met her, I did have my doubts." "Her having worked in a restaurant and that." "I even dreamed about her." "But people who have been through hardship are different somehow." "You'll have to treat her right." "Don't go taking her good nature for granted." "Yes." "And what does Kayo think?" "Shino." "Yes." "Please forgive me." "As you can see, I'm visually impaired, and make a bitter and unpleasant sister-in-law." "Not at all." "From now on, if you have trouble with anything, you can always ask me for help." "I'll do anything." "I'm happy that way." "Good night." "I'll go to bed now, Sister." "Good night." "Good night." "Good night." "I instantly suspected that Kayo was crying." "Whatever she thought of Shino, her fragile emotions must have been in turmoil." "If I were one of our dead siblings," "I would simply have gone upstairs without a word, I thought." "Hey." "What d'you think of my future wife, then?" "She's a good person." "She's going to be your sister-in-law." "Do you think you'll get along?" "Yes." "Tetsuro, can I go on living?" "Can I go on living?" "You fool." "What're you saying?" "You won't be alone, I promise." "Well, let's get started." "First we'll perform the sake cup ceremony." "I'll pour for you." "Oh no..." "There could hardly have been a smaller wedding than this, but at the same time, there could surely have been no ceremony in which hearts were more closely knit, more warmly entwined." "And for Shino and me, there could have been no more fitting start to our married life." "Perhaps I'll sing the Takasago song." "Father." "Hey, Father!" "Father!" "Stop it, Dad, please stop it!" "To think that my parents, who had quietly endured so many betrayals by their children, could so easily lose their composure in this brief moment of joy!" "I thought of the happiness the three must now be experiencing for the first time, and was suddenly overcome by the urge to weep." "Are you tired?" "No." "In the snow country, we don't wear anything in bed." "We sleep the way we were born." "It's much warmer than wearing nightclothes." "Am I not allowed to wear nightclothes, then?" "Certainly not." "You belong to the snow country now." "Excuse me." "Father, can you see him?" "Can you, Father?" "Yes, I see him." "He's a good man." "That night," "Shino was a perfectly fashioned puppet, and I was an inexperienced puppeteer, forgetting himself at his first performance." "What do you think?" "Warm, isn't it?" "Yes, very." "Father, Mother and Sister, they're all good people." "I'm ashamed at my uselessness." "Now that I'm here with you," "I realize how useless a life I was leading before." "Never saying what I do or don't want, always putting up with everything." "That's the Shino of Shinobugawa." "Well, I'm going to forget all about Shinobugawa now." "Starting tomorrow, I'll be a new Shino." "What's that noise?" "It's a horse sleigh." "What's that?" "A sleigh pulled by a horse." "One of the local farmers has probably been up to town, had too much to drink, and has only just now gotten back home." "Can I see?" "I don't want to die." "Please, you can't die either!" "Shino!" "Darling!" "I can see it!" "I can see it!" "Look!" "I can see it, I can see it!" "What?" "What can you see?" "My home!" "I can see my home!" "Oh, yes." "I can see it." "You can see it, can't you!" "My home..." "Tetsuro, where to?" "We're going to Otaki Hot Spring." "Isn't that swell." "I envy you!" "Well, well..." "Makes you envious indeed!" "Ma'am, everyone's saying they're jealous of the two of you." "Right?" "THE END"