"Hello?" "Andou?" "You're sounding cheery as usual." "It's coming up on two years now, you know." "Is there a reason you're calling first thing in the morning?" "Look..." "It's Takayama Ryuji." "He's dead." "Who?" "Takayama Ryuji." "You know, our classmate from medical school." "Takayama Ryuji!" "Cut the crap." "If this is a joke, it's not funny." "Would I joke about something like this?" "They say it might even have been a suicide." "Suicide?" "Takayama Ryuji, kill himself?" "Or it might be something else." "It looks like they're gonna have to do a little more investigating." "They've scheduled an administrative autopsy." "What are you saying?" "The body that you're slated to autopsy today... it's Takayama Ryuji." "I'll see you at the hospital." "Bye." "According to one of the pathologists there were no external injuries to speak of." "The cause of death is still unknown, hence this administrative autopsy." "We're waiting on the results of your autopsy, but we have sufficient reason to believe that this was a homicide." "If that's the case the court would order a second autopsy..." "They're saying it's Sudden Death Syndrome." "Sudden Death..." "They found the body at his place yesterday morning." "There's no mistake." "It's Takayama Ryuji." "I've got it!" "You have to use a rendering of the amino acids in DNA." "You plug the numbers into this chart and then use the resulting abbreviation." "Isn't that right?" "Ripper." ""He who slices."" "And what is that supposed to mean?" "Takayama?" "Still don't get it, huh?" "It's you." "Your future." ""Ripper"..." "Let's get started." "1,520." "Seeing some necrosis here on the left side of the heart." "There's arterial blockage." "Direct cause of death is heart attack brought on by blockage of the left pulmonary artery." "There's a small tumor in his throat." "Let's go ahead and take a sample." "OK." "You can't even slit your own wrist..." "But you're pretty good at slicing up other people, huh?" "Andou!" "Dr. Andou?" "There was something strange in his stomach." "Takayama Ryuji." "Lecturer at the Science and Technology Department of Kyouei University." "He would appear to have been something of a... strange man, wouldn't you agree?" "His ex-wife, Asakawa Reiko." "That boy in the picture is their son." "Ryuji and his ex-wife never kept in touch with one another, but it looks like recently the two had been in close contact." "Is there some suspicion regarding his cause of death?" "Asakawa Reiko entered Ryuji's apartment at about the time that the ambulance arrived." "But after that she returned home and retrieved her son." "The two are now missing." "Missing?" "And one of the ambulance crew saw her with a videotape taken from Mr. Takayama's aprtment." "A videotape?" "Mr. Takayama placed a phone call to Asakawa Reiko just before he died." "But the first person to find his body was Mr. Takayama's girlfriend." "According to her she just happened to stop by his apartment, where she found him already dead." "It'd be stranger to think that some sort of foul play was NOT involved." "But... he died from a heart attack, you know?" "It doesn't make sense, does it?" "Why not meet Mr. Takayama's girlfriend for yourself?" "She's a gloomy one, though." "Our questioning isn't going anywhere..." "This is Dr. Andou, who was in charge of the autopsy." "This is Takano Mai, the first person to discover the body." "Please tell us again about when you found the body." "To the doctor, this time." "There was nothing to make us think it was suicide OR murder." "What I want to ask you about is Mr. Takayama's health." "His health?" "His body didn't look like one that'd suddenly died from heart failure." "Did he ever mention anything to you about chest pains, or lack of energy?" "...No." "Ms. Takano." "Yesterday morning, what made you decide to suddenly go to Takayama Ryuji's apartment?" "Asakawa Reiko took her son and disappeared to... where, I wonder?" "Tell us what you can recall." "I don't know anything." "Please answer the question." "I don't know anything." "I really don't." "Why won't you answer?" "Tell us what you know." "You knew that Takayama Ryuji was meeting with his ex-wife, didn't you?" "Why won't you speak?" "You're not hiding something, are you?" "!" "Tell me everything you know!" "Talk!" "Just a..." "Mr. Maekawa!" "I know who you are, Mr. Andou." "I heard about you a month or so ago." "From Dr. Takayama." "About me?" "What did you hear?" "That when you were students everyone was into code-making." "We'd use our knowledge of various medical terminologies to come up with our codes..." "But the ones that Takayama made were always the hardest to solve." "He was a pretty intelligent guy, wasn't he?" ""Andou was the only one that ever broke my codes," he said." "Before he died..." "Dr. Takayama was investigating something with Reiko." "Investigating what?" "A videotape." "A videotape?" "Whoever watches it dies." "Whoever watches it dies?" "Yes." "Four people have already watched it... and died." "That's simply not possible." "Mr. Andou?" "Yes?" "Dr. Takayama was... different from other people." "You know that, don't you?" "Yeah." "He'd talk about things that would happen in the future, or what other people were thinking, and would be right on the mark." "It was amazing." "You mean that?" "He knew, didn't he?" "That you and I would meet like this." "Why?" "Why did he die and leave me alone?" "This is stupid." "Professor?" "Professor?" "Professor?" "Professor?" "Professor!" "Hey!" "What'd you find out?" "Myocardial infarcation caused by a tumor." "A tumor?" "Take a look at this." "But... this isn't malignant." "There's no WAY something like this could just spring up in his blood vessels all of a sudden!" "Was there anything that WASN'T strange about the guy?" "!" "Typical Takayama, eh?" "What about the tumor in his throat?" "Oh yeah." "I couldn't find anything like it." "I did some asking around, and some famous professor at Bunka Medical University sent me his own opinion." "He says it looks just like a smallpox tumor." "There's no way." "The smallpox virus was eradicated ages ago." "What about Takayama's girlfriend?" "Did she say anything that'd give us a clue as to the cause of death?" "She told me something a lot crazier than a virus." "You best tell me." "Hold on to yourself." "She said he died from a videotape." "A videotape?" "!" "Yeah." "What does that mean?" "It seems there's a videotape that kills whoever watches it." "That kind of tape exists, or so she said." "Meaning THAT's the tape that Asakawa Reiko took before she went missing?" "Yes, he's here." "Me?" "It's the police." "They found Asakawa Reiko and her son." "They were in an automobile accident." "They already towed the other car away." "Luckily, the driver came away with only minor injuries." "Hey, doctor!" "The car was pretty badly damaged." "We were just now able to remove the bodies." "The child, too?" "Yes." "It looks like she'd gone back to her parents' house after all." "Though they'd denied any knowledge of her whereabouts when we contacted them..." "But there's something a little strange." "It's possible that the child was already dead BEFORE the accident." "What?" "Hey!" "What are you doing!" "You can't just walk right up there!" "Sorry." "I'm from the media." "I was Asakawa's senior co-worker." "Her co-oworker?" "Officer... isn't that a VCR?" "VCR?" "Welcome home!" "What're you doing just standing over there?" "You're late." "Yeah..." "Where's Takanori?" "He went to sleep already." "He said he was going to stay up 'til you got home, but..." "Oh." "I'm just gonna check on him." "Don't wake him up." "I know." "I'm sorry." "I woke you up." "What is it?" "The child died, too?" "Yes." "Yeah, but he didn't die because of the accident." "He was already dead." "Heart attack." "The police think that Asakawa Reiko was driving when she noticed that her son sitting in the back seat was dead." "She took her attention from the road and that's what caused the accident." "Now Takayama, Asakawa Reiko, and even their son are dead." "Their son saw the video too, didn't he?" "This has nothing to do with a video." "We know what exactly what caused his death." "And no matter how hard you look, you're not going to find any connection between dying because you watched some video, and a tumor in a person's arteries." "Isn't that right?" "Dr. Takayama's talked to me about his son." "What did he say?" "He said he regretted leaving any trace of his DNA in this world." "He regretted..." "leaving his DNA in this world?" "Yes." "There isn't a father in this world that'd wish for the death of his son." "Mr. Andou." "What?" "Dr. Takayama didn't want his son to die." "He was trying to HELP him." "For Ms. Asakawa's sake." "He was looking for a way to help them." "But something happened when he died." "He... saw something." "As for what he saw..." "I just don't know yet." "Mr. Kou, can you take a look at this?" "That mouse is glowing!" "Yes." "The fertilized egg of a mouse was injected with the genetic protein of a luminescent jellyfish." "It's for a classt." "You mean that "gene splicing" stuff?" "So it's already progressed this far..." "That's amazing." "I bet if you put your minds to it you could even "make" a human, huh?" "Sorry." "Do you remember me?" "Yes." "I'm Yoshino from NNB Broadcasting." "Is there something I can help you with?" "As a matter of fact, there's something I'd very much like for you to see." "What's that?" "This is a record of what Asakawa Reiko was working on." "Record?" "Yes." "She wrote about a videotape." "A videotape that kills you if you watch it." "Four people died of a heart attack at exactly the same time." "I now know that one week earlier, the four of them had watched a videotape at a lodge in Izu." "Asakawa was curious." "She went to Izu and found the videotape for herself." "She watched it, and was sure that she too would die one week later." "Thus, aided by Takayama Ryuji, she began her investigations, trying to uncover everything she could about the videotape." "I don't know why... but even Asakawa's son saw the video." "From her information, the videotape was created by a girl named Yamamura Sadako, via her powers of psychography." "Sadako's mother, Yamamura Shizuko, was reportedly clairvoyant, which had the press all up in arms." "She was branded a fraund, a charlatan, and ended up committing suicide." "But as it turns out, her daughter Sadako was even more powerful." "She had a miserable life, was treated like some sort of monster." "Sadako was killed by her father." "Her own father." "Sadako had the power to lay a curse on someone, and to kill them with it." "Through the power of her hatred." "Do you really believe that story?" "Let me tell you about Asakawa." "She thought whoever watched that video had to copy that tape and show it to someone else within seven days." "If they wanted to live." "So to save her child, she went to her parent's house and showed it to her father." "She even brought a VCR so she could copy the tape." "But one week later, her son died of a heart attack." "One week later..." "And what happened to her father?" "He killed himself." "He'd written will." "It said:" ""Don't worry." "The tape is my responsibility, and I've taken care of it." "This is Yamamura Sadako." "She was in a small acting troupe for a while, in Tokyo. when she lived in Tokyo." "This photograph is from around that time." "There's one more thing." "This was found at the Asakawa house." "It's a copy of the tape." "I pass it on to you." "Please, feel free to watch it if you like." "Is something wrong?" "Have you watched it?" "No." "What's weird is weird, even if you don't actually believe in it." "That's the kind of thing this video is." "Don't you think?" "But you're a doctor." "I need some kind of scientific basis for what's happened." "Please, help me." "If you find out anything, please give me a call." "I'm counting on you." "Present?" "Present..." "You're saying that this is a present?" "From you to me?" "Sadako!" "Sadako!" "Sadako!" "Forgive me Sadako." "You were were never meant to be born into this world." "Sadako!" "Sadako!" "I didn't come to you for help thinking you'd ask me to do something like THIS!" "I'm a REPORTER." "If I told a story like that, there'd be no difference between the nightly news and those "That's Incredible!" variety shows." "That's WHY I am telling you this." "You can't report this to the public at all." "What ARE you talking about?" "Why do you think I've gone through all this trouble to research Yamamura Sadako's story?" "That video... it's the embodiment of Sadako's hatred." "Make no mistake-- if you watch it, you will die." "You are NOT right in the head." "Do you realize what you're saying?" "Why don't you watch it for yourself?" "Then you'll realize whether what I'm saying is true or not." "I'm not discussing this any longer." "Please leave." "If you'll excuse me." "Wait a minute!" "What's your problem?" "Please give me the videotape." "I gave it to you already." "I want YOUR copy so I can get rid ot it." "I want to get rid of all the videotapes, and then I want to die." "You wanna die...?" "Video..." "Give it to me!" "You think I'd just hand it over to you?" "Get the fuck away from me!" "Now wait just a minute!" "Give me that tape!" "We are through talking." "Will you please let go of me?" "!" "You just don't get it, do you?" "What are you THINKING about over there?" "Say something, dammit." "You look even more depressed than usual." "Lke you you're about to die or something." "Yeah..." "You want me to inject you with some of that protein from the glowing jellyfish?" "If I did that, it might "brighten" you up a little, huh?" "Laugh, why don't you?" "The bodies of four students have turned up." "They all died from the same medical condition." "The administrative autopsy was carried out in Yokohama." "All of them died from heart attack." "What's more, the cause of the attacks was a tumor in their bloodstream." "Oh..." "This may end up being a virus, after all." "A virus." "But I don't get it." "If it IS a virus, why didn't Asakawa Reiko also die from a heart attack?" "Because the cause of death isn't a virus." "What is it, then?" "A curse." "Gimme a break." "I have to apologize to you." "The video DOES exist." "And I understand now what Takayama wants." "What Dr. Takayama wants?" "I know what he wants me to do." "What's that?" "To wipe that video off the face of this world." "Right before he died, he "saw" that things would turn out like this." "He thought that he could use me to stop Yamamura Sadako from carrying out her plan." "He's trying to get me destroy that video in exchange for granting my wish." "And what is your wish Mr. Andou?" "What is it?" "Takayama gave that video to me." "As as a present." "Did you watch it?" "Why?" "You're wrong." "About what?" "That's not what Dr. Takayama wanted." "It's the video." "What else could it be?" "He wants me to destroy the video." "It's the only possible explanation." "Dr. Andou." "You have a phone call, from a reporter named Mr. Yoshino." "HE got in touch with me." "It's open." "There's something I want to ask you." "Something you want to ask?" "Well, what?" "The well that Sadako fell into... by chance, is there a chunk missing out of one side?" "You watched the video?" "No I didn't watch it." "I have no reason to watch it." "Then how do you know?" "Asakawa Reiko didn't write about that in her notes." "I've had enough." "To hell with this, all of it." "I'm giving you the video." "Here, take this too." "Now hurry up and get out." "You watched the video, didn't you?" "No, I said!" "I haven't watched it." "Yamamura Sadako appears in my dreams." "I can't sleep." "Because I keepthose things on me." "I just want to hurry up and forget all about this." "Please leave!" "Mr. Yoshino?" "Mr. Yoshino?" "Hey!" "Mr. Yoshino?" "Mr. Andou?" "Don't look." "Let's go." "That's it" "It's over now." "I'm a pathologist." "Up 'til now, all I've had to do was slice up bodies." "But now I've helped save a few lives." "No, more than that." "Tens, maybe hundreds of lives." "I've put an end to Yamamura Sadako's hatred." "I'm this video's last victim." "I'm so sorry, Mr. Andou." "You lost what's most important to you." "You've thought about dying many times over." "All this time, you've blamed yourself for letting your son die." "But being afraid to die is nothing to be ashamed of." "Nor is regretting that you watched the video." "How do you know that?" "That I let my son die?" "If I touch someone like this, I know what that person is thinking." "Just a little." "You have a power..." "like Takayama's?" "He was the only person that I could be with." "Dr. Takayama was the only one that ever understood me." "So I guess I can't lie to you." "I'm an idiot." "It's just like you said." "I just don't get it unless it's staring me in the face:" "I'm scared of dying." "Please help me." "I don't want to die." "Why did I watch that video?" "Why did Takayama make me do that?" "Isn't it painful?" "Knowing how I feel?" "There were times when I thought it was just an excuse." "When he said he regretted bringing a child in this world." "But he meant it." "Takayama had the ability to see the future, so why did he die the way he did?" "Nobody knows what's going to happen to them." "Not Dr. Takayama." "Not me." "No one knows." "Listen." "I want you do to something for me." "Will you be with me until I die?" "I'm sorry." "There's nothing to be sorry about." "I finally found it." "It's structurally different from the smallpox virus." "Never seen anything like it, have you?" "So there WAS a virus?" "It can't be..." "That reporter, Mr. Yoshino-- he didn't die of a heart attack." "What?" "He asphyxiated." "I'm in the process of getting a sample." "I think he'll turn up symptoms of the virus as well." "His cause of death was different..." "What does that mean?" "What is it?" "There's something I want to show you." "You're saying that watching a videotape can cause a virus to just spontaneously occur inside the body?" "Well, it's interesting!" "The retinas take in genetic data that's encoded on the tape, kinda like how computers use optical communication to send and receive information." "The data is then restructured inside the body, creating a virus." "Optical communication?" "That could be it!" "You're talking the impossible, Andou." "Think a moment." "If that's the case then why didn't Asakawa Reiko have the virus?" "She saw the video too, didn't she?" "You're not making a whole lot of sense." "Yamamura Sadako?" "A girl who could kill people with a curse but fell into a well and died?" "Who could believe a story like that?" "Listen, what killed those people was a virus with an unusually low contagion ability." "Not some curse." "I thought so, too." "Until I watched the video for myself." "Until you watched the video?" "You want to try taking a sample from my body?" "Shut the fuck up." "Listen to me. when I watched the video, Sadako's memories entered my body." "I'm tellin' you, leave me the hell alone." "I saw a hospital in the woods." "In Izu." "That's where Sadako was killed... about 30 years ago." "Now you talk a hospital in Izu from around that timeframe, what does that make you think of?" "Tuberculosis?" "And something else." "And..." "Smallpox." "Smallpox." "Mai!" "Mai!" "Shit!" "Where the hell did she go?" "So how does it feel knowing you won't be dying anytime soon?" "I have some good news." "Your body turns up no traces of the virus." "Which would mean the virus has nothing to do with the video." "Wouldn't you agree?" "Take a look." "It's a picture of the virus they took from Yoshino's neck." "There's a virus with a completely different structure mixed in with the others." "It's mutated." "That's why his cause of death was different, too." "We are lucky that it has such a low chance of contagion." "I have to study this virus in more detail, find out how it works." "This might turn out to be a profound discovery." "Yeah... did something happen between you and Takano Mai?" "What?" "Don't worry." "She'll turn up soon enough." "They're saying that the family wants to talk to you about how to proceed with the death certificate." "This is about the insurance, isn't it?" "Probably." "Doctor?" "I'll catch up with you later." "You smell like a dead body." "Mr. Maekawa!" "We've been cursed." "I have never had a case like this before." "Wait a minute." "It can't be." "They appear to have found evidence indicating that she gave birth." "Gave birth?" "Yes." "But we can't find the baby's corpse anywhere." "The building's air vent... it looked just like a well." "Miyashita?" "Hey, Andou..." "Yamamura Sadako's well... does it by chance have a chunk missing out of one side?" "Miyashita..." "Yoshino didn't watch that video after all... but he still got infected with the virus." "Why do you think that is?" "It's Asakawa Reiko's notebook." "It's the only possible explanation." "I can see it." "The color of the well, the way it looks." "I see it in my dreams." "It's like I'm actually there." "All I did was read that notebook, but I can see the images in my head so clearly." "You're saying the virus is generated not just by the video, but by WRITING?" "But that doesn't mean that EVERYONE dies." "There's a way to save yourself." "A way to save yourself?" "Asakawa left her own record behind." "Just reading it is enough to infect the reader with the virus." "In other words, she aided the virus in its proliferation." "The virus'... proliferation?" "She became Yamamura Sadako's HELPER." "Andou, tell me." "What did you do?" "I..." "You're the only survivor." "What did you do?" "Why did you survive!" "?" "I am NOT Yamamura Sadako's helper!" "Liar!" "I didn't help spread the virus!" "Come on, tell me!" "I didn't do anything!" "Give me back that notebook." "It's mine." "Give it back!" "I understand how I was reborn into this world!" "I put my own genetic information onto the videotape using nensha, or psychography." "That information went from your body into Mai's. cursed the videotape, you saw it." "Into Mai's womb." "Because you were so kind to sleep with her, I was able to be reborn." "Bitch!" "Why did you have to kill Mai?" "Mai isn't dead." "She's still alive...inside of me." "All of Mai's memories are inside of me." "You are Sadako." "Not Mai." "I'm Mai." "Liar!" "Mr. Andou." "You didn't sleep with me because you loved me." "You were just scared of dying." "And lonely." "I wanted to help you." "But it's not like you loved me or anything." "What the hell do you know?" "You were happy, weren't you?" "Because you felt a sense of superiority over Mr. Takayama?" "No!" "You used Mai AND me to come back to this world." "You killed Mai!" "It was all your fault." "Because you slept with me." "Mai." "Forgive me, Mai." "I forgive you Mr. Andou." "I forgive you." "What the hell are you after?" "Takayama, Asakawa Reiko, Mai... they're all dead." "What do you want?" "Why did all this happen?" "Nobody knows what's going to happen to them." "But I wanted everyone to know." "Know what?" "To know the fear that I'd felt for so long." "Fear?" "Yes." "Fear." "I have more that I want you to do." "You are my assistant." "Stop it, please!" "Sadako!" "No." "No." "I was only carrying out Takayama's will." "That's why I smashed the video." "I told you, didn't I?" "That's not what he wanted." "Meeting him was what allowed me to come back." "That's why I was able to be reborn." "That's impossible." "Takayama wanted to STOP Sadako!" "Right?" "!" "So this time, I want to help HIM." "His DNA is still at the hospital." "We can do it if I use my womb..." "Ryjui wouldn't help you, and neither will I!" "Oh, really?" "No." "There's no way." "Look!" "Do this for me, and I can grant YOUR wish too." "Andou!" "Takayama!" "Take the fertilized egg out of my body and inject it with the genetic data." "Then, return it to my womb." "The memories prior to death remain in the DNA itself." "If you use one of my fertilized eggs, it should mature to the same age as when the person died within 2-3 weeks if you use hormones to quicken the rate of cellular division." "Once this is put back into Takano Mai's womb, we're all finished." "You look terrible." "You too." "We traitors, aren't we?" "But who have we betrayed?" "This world... or God Himself?" "Daddy!" "Takanori?" "I missed you so much, Takanori." "Daddy." "So?" "What'd you think of my present?" "It was all thanks to that hair." "Take good care of him this time." "He is my brother, after all." "So Mai's wish... and my wish have been fulfilled." "The notebook that Asakawa left behind is going to be published." "As a novel." "What?" "People will read it." "And the fear that Sadako experienced will spread across this world." "And the people who read it...the virus will develop inside their bodies." "What will the world become because of the virus?" "Sadako will born." "There will be more and more people like Sadako." "Reproduction will not be limited to the viral level-- it will spread through bodily contact as well." "After that, even I can't see." "Perhaps..." "Perhaps?" "This virus will cause a change in humanity itself." "After all, humanity is the result of tiny organisms undergoing complicated changes, evolving into what we are now." "And now it's time for that evolution to proceed to the next level." "The world will change." "We have been dragged inside that vortex of change." "You, me, and..." "What can you see?" "How will the future turn out?" "Tell me." "Daddy!" "Come here!" "Stay away from Takanori." "Even though I gave birth to him..." "Just keep away." "Hey, Andou." "You betrayed the world in order to get your kid back." "Isn't that right?" "Let go of me." "Goodbye." "I wonder what sort of life awaiting that child." "Takayama, don't want your own child back?" "We still have his cells." "You could do it if you wanted." "Right?" "I couldn't do such a terrible thing." "I couldn't bring a child back into this world." "No." "You're wrong." "Andou... it will be a long, long time before there is peace again in this world." "Take care."