"It rained for months on end." "The whole of Tokyo was flooded." "The damage ran to billions of yen, and the dead and missing numbered in their millions." "The survivors all mutated into strange amphibian monsters, adapting quickly to the suddenly changing climate." "We're all going to die!" "No, we'll mutate." "We mustn't breed!" "Think what the children would look like." "No, actually, the horniness is part of the mutation." "That's why the species is so successful, from an evolutionary point of view." "Hello?" "No, we're not lost, just stuck in traffic." "Right now..." "we've just passed Shinsencho." "OK, talk to you in a bit." "Yeah, see you." "Are we going the right way?" "Look at the map." "We're already...there, I think." "Really?" "Where?" "What colour is your car?" "It's silver." "A Honda." "Well, more like gray, really." "I've got a red umbrella." "A red umbrella?" "Spin it round." "I'll try." "I'm spinning it, I'm spinning it." "Can't you see me?" "Now jump." "Jump?" "OK, here I go..." "Now on one leg." " Akemi!" " Hiroko!" " Here, towels." " Thanks." "In Tokyo, the bigger the company you work for, the smaller the flat you get." "You should work for a smaller company." "My company's already pretty small." " It's a nice place." " You think so?" "You still have Saburo, then?" "Little Saburo!" "It's raining tonight, so your car should be OK." "But you can't leave it." "There's a hardware store, just over there." "Park in front..." "It's been closed for a while." "AKEMI SHIMIZU" "Now for this week's episode of Where Are They Now?" "Akira, what are you doing now?" "Well..." "I'm a filmmaker." "He's just made a film that he's showing around." "The film's about is the main thing." "Please go and see it." "This is it." "But this is...a porno theatre." "It's a real theatre, then!" "It'll be dark and quiet." "You shouldn't have cut my sex scene after all!" "Are you making pornos?" "No, that was a joke." "I had a part for Hiroko, but she turned it down." "What a pity." "No ambition!" "Right!" "That's her problem exactly." "Why did you pass up the chance to be a star?" "I don't like the sound of my own voice." "It sounds like this." "I can't wait to see it." "Really?" "How about now?" " I've got the DVD here." " She might be tired." "No, let's watch it now." "It's not too intellectual, is it?" "There are so many lives in the future." "Assuming we haven't destroyed ourselves first, we could live on after the end of the solar system." "In the infinity of new souls created, there 's no reason that one shouldn't be me again." "Sorry." "I have to get up early in the morning." "Can you help me with this?" "I liked the bit I saw, though." "You can change in the bathroom." "Hiroko, can you pull that side?" "I hope you'll be all right." "I'm sorry it's so cramped." "It's fine." ""A good soldier must suffer with pride," right?" ""Enduring the unendurable." "Suffering the..."" "Stop it, stupid!" "Seriously, though." "Thanks." "We'll start looking for an apartment tomorrow." "My boyfriend's staying next Sunday." "He's driving from Nagoya." "His uncle works in advertising." "Shall I ask him to come and see your film?" " You think he'd come from Nagoya?" " Of course not!" "That's my side." "His uncle lives in Tokyo." "I'm switching it off." " All that way, for your movie!" " Three, two, one..." "Goodnight!" "Don't forget to move your car tomorrow." "The fines are huge." "I'm glad it's raining." "DON'T FORGET TO MOVE YOUR CAR" "Look." "We'll be OK until Friday." "CLOSED UNTIL FRIDAY NOVEMBER 16th" "What are you doing?" "It'll go up if we don't pay." "We're not kids anymore." "Cover me!" "I'm going into the safe!" "Copy that!" "We can't make any more mistakes." "Our budget's tight as it is." "To rent an apartment..." "Say the rent is 30,000..." "We'd need a deposit of two months' rent." "In all, we'd need..." "We would need 400,000 yen in advance." "It's a good place for young couples." "Who are you?" "Let me out!" "It's popular with young couples." "Do you like the view?" "Nice dead cat." "Something smells like shit!" "I can't live in a dump like that." "There wasn't any soap left in Akemi's place." "Do you think it's a hotel?" "I didn't mean that." "My bad." "Let's go and buy some soap now." "What's wrong?" "Are you mad?" "It's nothing." "Come on, what is it?" "You said I have no ambition." "What?" "Yesterday." "You said I have no ambition at all." "I said that?" "It's not true." "I like photography and art," "I've got a boating license, and I read a lot too." "But they're hobbies." "They're not the same as ambitions." "What's the difference?" "You have to be able to define who you are in the world by what you do." "What I like to do defines who I am." "Doesn't that make me a richer person?" "You still have to be better at it than others." "Something's wrong." "Something's wrong with these buildings." "They refuse all physical contact with each other." "You're always say something clever to avoid really talking." "Every night, flat ghosts slide in and out of these gaps, and wander about the city..." "They wander about the city, scaring the people shitless." "The authorities fill in the gaps with concrete, but the buildings keep moving apart, letting the flat creatures take over." "I could make them out of paper." "All right, what's the matter?" "I'm listening." "I'm ready for a dramatic conversation, with flashbacks and a big climax..." "You've stopped listening already." "You're the one who's "dramatic"!" "I'm listening." "But we're talking a lot." "That's not true!" "Maybe you're right." "I don't think I know what I'm doing." "What, here?" "No, in general." "You take things too seriously." "Where's your sense of humour?" "There are these two poisonous snakes." "One says to the other," ""We're poisonous, aren't we?"" "So the other one says," ""Of course we are." "Why do you ask?"" "And the first snake says," ""I've just bitten my tongue!"" "PART-TIME JOB Available Wrapping PURCHASES" "A part-time job." "We could work here." "No, they'll pay peanuts!" "It'd take two weeks to pay off the parking fine!" "Wait till you find a real job." "I want to keep busy." "Anyway, I have no ambition, so it's a perfect job for me." "Come on!" "I did it without thinking and got the job." "Only you, Akira?" "But Hiroko's dog was great." "They are stupid." "It wasn't great." "And it was a cat." "You're better off doing something else." "I won't work there long." "How long do you plan to stay here?" " We haven't really..." " We saw a nice place today." "We have a good chance of getting it." "Yes, a really good chance!" "Where?" "Tokyo..." "No boyfriends, no pets." "Is there anyone who actually checks?" "Don't wrap two together." "Hello." "There seem to be some residents already living here!" "Friday NOVEMBER 16th" "CLOSED Until Friday NOVEMBER 16th" "CAR No 55M46-51 TOWED AWAY TO MUNICIPAL POUND" "So I wrap nine boxes with just one roll of paper." "But she says I should do eleven." "How am I supposed to do that?" "Even ten is impossible." "What's the matter?" "The car was stolen today." "All our equipment was in it." "What about the screening?" "I'm screwed!" "No, you're not." "Yesterday, I moved everything into the apartment." "I didn't like leaving it out there." "Akemi was upset so I forgot to tell you." "Great thinking!" "The smoke machine too?" "I just told you." "There's the 15,000-yen fine, plus a 14,000-yen towing fee." "I don't have 29,000 yen." "But I need my things from the car." "Can you take me to it, so I can get my stuff?" "Not until you pay the money." "We're open until six." "It's still my car!" "Not until you pay the money, it's not." "Let's just say there's 29,000 yen in the car." "If you just show me where it is, I can get the money and pay you." "What do you say?" "What'll happen to it if I don't pay?" "Make?" "Colour?" "Year?" "Thank you." "I hate him." "He's a cavity!" " He's got bad teeth?" " No, I mean he's a cavity himself." "Last year he caught pneumonia." "Too bad, he has a good doctor!" "All that stuff?" " Here you go!" " Put it in here, please." "Where shall I put this?" "Look!" "There are so many lives in the future." "Assuming we haven't destroyed ourselves first, we could live on." "If we moved our vessel or planet close to the black hole, at the edge of the event horizon," "then tossed in all our nuclear waste..." "Great!" "I've never seen smoke used like that in a film before." "No, Lucy." "It's the first time smoke's been used that way outside a film." "Using smoke inside films is so common." "I want to force the audience's involvement by breaking through the surface of the screen." "The audience shouldn't feel safe." "Pleased to meet you." "It got to me, eh?" "You should come to my office sometime." "We usually do advertising for medical products." "But we get more creative sometimes." "Thanks." "I'll think about it." "I'm considering a few options right now." "Nice work!" "Pretty funny." "Really?" "Being funny is the hardest." "I'm going for a beer." "Excuse me." " I'll pass this on." " Thank you." "You should be in films." "Come off it!" "Not me." "Were you in the film?" "That's not me." "I'm more in transportation." "I helped with the editing too." "Are you a filmmaker too?" "No, I'm just the girlfriend." "You must be a good one." "Relationships with artists are tough." "They can be demanding." "I once went out with a painter." "He was always working or talking about his work." "I felt invisible." "But when he had an opening, with all those people," "I realized his art was more important than my problems." "You said they'd be out tonight." "Not so loud." "I told them you were coming." "I thought they'd understand." "Apparently not!" "One extra person is bad enough, but two..." "Don't say that." "They're my friends." "I have to help them." "They're just taking advantage of you." "You're not helping them." "All you're doing is indulging them." "Your "friend" doesn't think he has to work because he's an "artist"." "My uncle won't hire him." "He thinks he's an idiot." "Akira's not an idiot." "He's even got a job." "Hiroko is the problem." "She just hangs around all day, cutting pictures out of my magazines." "Dear Akira," "I hope that this letter finds you well, and that your screenings are going well." "What about the wrapping?" "Are you still doing that job?" "Or maybe by now you're a big-shot director." "Or perhaps you're in advertising." "I wonder what happened to the car." "I hope that someone is having a good time with it." "I wonder how Akemi's doing." "I tried to fold this letter into an elegant yacht, but I got it totally wrong." "You know how useless I am at origami." "As for me," "I'm living between the buildings with the ghosts." "Just kidding!" "My life isn't that extraordinary." "I'm fine." "That's all I wanted to tell you, really." "And I'm doing all the things" "I ever wanted to do." "In fact," "I've never in all my life felt so useful." "Tokyo is afraid." "Who is this creature who for the past 2 weeks has been terrifying citizens all over Tokyo and then vanishing?" "The media are calling him "The Creature from the Sewers."" "A few shocked eyewitnesses have managed to film him on their cell phones." "Just watch, Mr. Nomoto." "His gait, his insane beard, his milky eye..." "I wanted to run away too, but I was so scared, I couldn't move." "He came towards me, and then he...he licked me." "He was disgusting." "Sorry." "His eye was like this, his beard went like this, and he walked like this..." "I was so afraid..." "He was walking like this..." "And smoking like that..." "The police are still searching the sewers and underground." "TO OUR HEROES OF NANKING - 1937" "The Creature from the Sewers!" "And I plan to prove to the court, without trying its patience, in less than...ninety minutes, that is, before the clock strikes six in this courthouse of the Republic, that it is quite unthinkable for my client," "whose whole life has been dedicated to the good and the beautiful..." "That it is unthinkable, as I was saying, for Mrs. Defrasnoux to have murdered by decapitation" "Leopoldine, the cat belonging to the plaintiff, Mr. Troucat." "Where does the Creature of the Sewers come from?" "Under interrogation he hasn't said a word." "All he eats is flowers, and only ichimonji chrysanthemums, symbol of the imperial family." "The American government claims to have spotted him in footage of an All-Qaeda camp." "In Siberia, a woman claims he is her son Igor, an amnesiac genius pianist who disappeared 17 years ago." "In Japan, a young woman says she saw him inside the Aum sect 10 years ago." "In Finland, a surgeon claims he spotted him in a Hungarian paedophile film." "What a story, Mr. Nomoto..." "A French lawyer, Maitre Voland, has contacted the Japanese government." "He claims that, although he doesn't know the creature, he can communicate with him." "Sir." "Mr. Hirokishi would like to know what you said that finally made him react." "I asked him if he realized that it's likely he'll be hanged." "And what did he reply?" "He said, "No, I don't want to."" "Did you ask him his name?" "He said, "Call me Merde."" "Which sounds very like the French word merde." "Merde?" "Following the Merde case, the Japanese government has decided to toughen immigration regulations." "Inside Japan, there have been attacks on white foreigners with red beards." "Mr. Merde, whose trial will start tomorrow, will be defended by the French lawyer Mr. Voland, one of the only three people in the world who can speak the same language as Mr. Merde." "Mr. Voland has already declared that he will plead insanity and irresponsibility at the time of the offense." "Let us move on to the motive for this heinous act, if such a motive can exist." "Could you tell us why you took the lives of so many innocent people?" "I don't like innocent people." "I don't like people." "So what...you're going to kill us all?" "Wouldn't it have been simpler, since you like no one, for you to kill yourself?" "But I love life, imbecile!" "What?" "Silence!" "Maitre, instruct your client the court will not be insulted!" "At least modern terrorists have the decency to blow themselves up with their victims." "And among all people, the Japanese are really the most disgusting." "Disgusting?" "I understand now." "You should know that in Japan, we don't really like racist foreigners." "Besides, nobody forced you to come and live in our country!" "Yes." "My god did." "My god always places me among the people I hate the most." "It's the cross I have to bear." "So I ask you, Mr. Merde, what do you have against the Japanese?" "They live way too long." "And their eyes are shaped like a woman's sex." "It's totally disgusting." "Silence!" "And Mr. Merde thinks that he is... quite appealing?" "I don't know." "But if I knew, I'd answer yes." "I've never looked at myself." "My god forbids mirrors." "But my mother, who was gorgeous, used to say I was a pretty little boy." "Well... then your mother... sorely deceived you, Mr. Merde!" "He says he won't talk to you anymore." "He says, "It's not interesting."" "My mother was a saint!" "You all..." "You all raped her!" "And I am your son!" "Warders!" "Make the defendant sit!" "Silence!" "Defendant, do you understand that you risk the death penalty?" "No." "I don't want that." "I'm against it." " Hang Merde!" " Hang Merde!" "Free Merde!" "Free Merde!" "Today, the Pope condemned Mr. Merde's appalling crimes." "In Japan, ultranationalists are violently demonstrating to demand the death penalty." "But in the eyes of many Mr. Merde has become a star." "The trial's outcome will be announced tomorrow." "CONDEMNED TO DEATH!" "THREE YEARS LATER" "He wants you to warn your client he'll be hanged in an hour." "He said, "No."" "Ask him what he wants for his last meal." ""Flowers and cash."" "He's asking for a last cigarette." "What's he doing?" "He's praying." "Dead." ""The sky has grown old."" "Coming soon:" "the adventures of Mr. Merde in NY" "How long will it take before this circle disappears?" "10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days," "10 months, 10 years..." "I've been living in this house for 1 0 years." "I am a hikikomori." "Usually, hikikomoris live at the expense of their parents, but I live alone." "Defecating with the door open, I don 't care." "Falling asleep while defecating, I don't care." "Strangely, I don't watch television." "When was the last time I watched it?" "However, I feed myself every day." "I don't need a table." "Those who are sensitive would have noticed, but my own way of tidying up, practiced for 10 years, has now reached the level of art." "It's hard to believe, but I have read all these books." "Lately, reading magazines about climbing, fishing and travelling," "suddenly makes me miss home." "I never get into the room that my father used." "The envelope of money my father sends, I open it every month." "The first year, money came with a letter." "For the next 9 years, only money." "Brand new crisp banknotes." "How exciting." "With money and a telephone, everything is OK, as everything can be delivered." "The bell is ringing." "I open the door." "I take." "I give." "I close the door." "With the delivery men, I never make eye contact." "On Saturdays, I always order a pizza." "So you never look at people's faces?" "Right." "I hated having contact with people." "I hated having contact with the sunlight too." "I like watching the sunlight." "I can see it." "The movement of the sunlight." "Others may not, but I can even see the hour hand moving." "Everything is moving." "It has been 10 years since I last moved." "It has been 11 years living in the house." "Strictly speaking," "I am a hikikomori." "When I eat while standing, I digest better." "When I fall asleep on the toilet, I have sweet dreams." "The reading continues." "The smell of my father..." "Saturday is pizza day." "With the delivery men, I don 't make any..." "The first eye contact in 11 years." "Excuse me..." "Buttons?" "C-o-m..." "Coma." "Did you push it?" " Yes." " You did?" "There's a mistake." "The eighth one from the floor." "On the right." "This place is really perfect." "This smell is really awful." "Because of the shock, for 2 days, I couldn't do anything." "Even if I don't do anything to start with." "What's wrong with me?" "It's shaking." "Pizza's End?" "How dare you answer me?" "I'm not joking, cut the crap." "A guy like you, I'll cut off both his hands and feet to make sashimi." "Bring me some water." "It's me." "Don't hang up." "The weather is dull and I wasn't in a good mood." "Sorry." "I said I'm sorry, punk!" "You're really getting on my nerves." "You're not even good at delivering!" "And who do you think you're talking to?" "I paid your two-weeks' salary, you should be grateful!" "Are you trying to say you are hurt?" "Well, I am hurt as much as you!" "Cut the crap, punk!" "I am much more introvert than you are!" "Moron!" "Excuse me..." "The girl who is working at your place..." "Is it her day off today?" "Who?" "Pale complexion..." "Garter belt..." "Buttons..." "She's my wife." "Just kidding." "She also quit yesterday." "She stopped delivering?" "This is really perfect..." "The little one said... she'd never come out again." "You must be all crazy." "She had been working for some time." "Where does she live?" "3 Daizawa, I think." "Don't bother about the pizza." "When a hikikomori wants to meet a hikikomori," "there is only one way." "What a blinding light." "It's so hot." "I hate sweating." "Why did I come out?" "Right. 3 Daizawa..." "To the left." "The subway station..." "No, the bus is better." "Right, I don't have any money." "Nobody must see me." "Yes, of course." "Great." "Passing by Sangenjaya..." "I can be there in 30 minutes." "Let's go." "Let's walk." "Off we go." "Good." "Full steam ahead." "Excuse me." "I would..." "They all went back in." "All of them." "This man..." "I was like him 5 years ago." "For her, it must have been 10 years... 15 years?" "This guy is a rookie." "As for her..." "Come out, please." "Quick, come out." "If you don't come out now, you never will." "Listen to me." "Open the door!" "At least, tell me your name." "It's collapsing!" " Come out!" " Everybody, come out!" "Come out!" "What is she waiting for?" "Don't go back." "Don't touch me!" "Don't go back in." "I pushed it." "It's shaking."