"A JAPANESE ART THEATRE GUILD DISTRIBUTION" "COPRODUCED BY SOZOSHA AND JAPANESE ATG" "Furniture by Takashimaya Department Store Futons by Sugimuraya Sake by Yamamoto  Ota Tesuzo Shoten" "Wedding Kyoto Grand hotel Ceremonies Koekisha  Yamamoto Masao Buddhist Altars Yamanaka Daibutsudo" "Carpets  Curtains by Kurare Inc." "Gala gowns by Watabe Wear Ship by Oshima Transport Inc." "IN COOPERATION WITH DAIEl STUDIOS, KYOTO" "PRODUCED BY SOZOSHA" "A FILM COMMEMORATING THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF ATG" "THE CEREMONY" "SCREENPLAY TAMURA Tsutomu SASAKI Mamoru OSHIMA Nagisa" "MUSIC TAKEMITSU Toru" "CINEMATOGRAPHY NARUSHIMA Toichiro" "STAFF" "ART DIRECTION TODA Jusho" "LIGHT YAMASHITA Reijiro" "SOUND NISHIZAKI Hideo" "EDITOR URAOKA Keiichi" "SOUND RECORDING AND EDITING" "ASSISTANT DIRECTION CONTINUITY AND ASSISTANT PRODUCER" "COSTUMES, MAKE UP AND HAIR DESIGN" "CAST" "KAWARAZAKI Kenzo" "KAKU Atsuko" "NAKAMURA Atsuo TSUCHIYA Kyoshi" "OTOWA Nobuko" "KOMATSU Hosei TOURA Rokko VVATANABE Fumio" "KAWARASAKI Shizue HARAChisako TAKAYAMA Maki MITOBE Sue" "TSUBAKI Ryuichi NARUSHIMA Yumi OTA Yoshiaki TSUBAKI Yukihiro" "OS AW A Efiaro TONOY AM A Y asufli" "KOYAMA Akiko" "SATO Kai" "PRODUCED BY KUZUI Kinshiro YAMAGUCHI Takuji" "DIRECTOR OSHIMA Nagisa" "THE CEREMONY" "That's embarrassing, yes, especially for me" "In any case, I ask you to wait one more day..." "You can change the time and take a later plane?" "If we don't hurry up we won't have the time to confirm the obituary in the newspaper" "In fact, he's more important to me than my grandfather." "I'm counting on you." "If it concerns Terumichi, I have to take care of it." "The telegram was ad reseed to me" "I was the only one, who knew where he was" "What are we going to...?" "I didn't want to imply, that we necessarily have to go together" "How long would it take to get down there by train?" "Three hours with the Shinkansen to Osaka and from there on I'll take the Kirishima to arrive at Kyushu at 11:50 am tomorrow." "The ship leaves Kagoshima at 5 pm and arrives on the island at 10 pm the next evening" "I'm asking myself, if I should go" "Why?" "Such a long journey, that can't be supported" "The telegram from Terumichi wasn't a joke" "Announcing his own..." "No, he doesn't have the habit to lie" "If it's true, nobody is left, but you and me" "You will live as long as your grandfather, until you will have turned 89 years" "Maybe older, 100 years..." "Are you making fun of me?" "No, I'm serious" "What do you think we are for each other?" "Relatives" "That's all?" "Relatives who do not see each other except on weddings or funerals." "Really?" "Would you say the same about Terumichi?" "Relatives, who do not see each other except on weddings or funerals." "No, that's not true" "From childhood on, since the first time that I've met her I haven't stopped loving Ritsuko" "Terumichi, if you hadn't been there, I would have found my fulfillment" "Teruchimi, if you hadn't been there, my life would have been different" "Come on, relative!" "What did you say?" "Me, I have a name:" "Masuo Sakurada" "Man of Manchuria." "Born in Manchuria." "Terumichi, you caught me" "It was just after New Years Day 1947" "My mother and I had just been renaturalized from Manchuria" "When we approached the family home of the Sakuradas the village people told us that this particular day... was the first anniversary of my father's death" "Then mother told me:" ""From now on, we'll..." ""...be living by ourselves and make a living an our awn, just the two of us, alright, Masuo?"" "And when we started to walk back the way we had come,  you came after us, to catch us" "We had escaped the Russians, the Manchurians and the Koreans" "And finally, it was in Japan, that we were arrested by the Japanese" "They said, that the Russian soldiers were all demons" "Were they really that terrible?" "What?" "You're in a desperate mood." "I ask you, if they have treated you like a whore?" "I've heard, that some" "I'm asking about you." "If that didn't happen to you with the Russians, how about the Manchurians or the Koreans?" "If something like that had happened to me, I would not have returned alive" "But why did you just try to run away?" "We wanted to live without your help" "What?" "For the Sakurada family, Masuo is irreplaceable" "Ah!" "I forgot!" "What happened to your younger brother?" "Before we arrived at Dairen, he" "Well, that couldn't be avoided." "So Masuo will live for two sons" "I don't know why, but I didn't look at the photograph of my father" "But, even if I would have, I wouldn't have learned anything about the reason for his death or to be more exact, the reason for his suicide." "All I knew about my father was, that he had to return to Tokyo on an important mission, shortly before the defeat, in July 1945... wand that he committed suicide the following year, just after New Years Day 1946" "Nobody told me about it, and I didn't want to know more about it." "I didn't want to be considered as a particularly difficult boy" "At that time, people didn't talk a lot about these things... about the war, the military and the missing persons." "Mom!" "I can wash myself on my own." "Your mother is sleeping." "If were her, I..." "Masuo, it's me, your aunt." "Do you remember me?" "I know how to wash myself on my own" "Did you forget me?" "It's already 7 or 8 years ago" "Yes, I remember aunt Setsuko" "You know, I knew your father since he was your age" "Come on, sit down, you'll catch a cold" "I'm ashamed" "Why?" "Because I'm dirty" "So what?" "Are we not relatives?" "What's so funny?" "I made myself dirty, too" "That's my mother, but she never washes me" "Boy from Manchuria" "Who are you?" "I'm an orphan, the child of a war criminal" "You must not spy!" "War criminal." "But as you say, Terumichi, if I may use your words..." ""grandfather, who is sitting next to me felt very honoured to be imprisoned at Sugamo, together with Tojo and company" "The war crimes Tadashi was talking about... were less severe than the ones grandfather committed" "They say, that his father was still imprisoned in China" "He's one of my father's younger brothers, but he had a different mother" "It was disgusting to see, how they touched the knees of aunt Setsuko between two arguments." "Later I understood, that he imitated Kynichi Tokuda the leader of the communist party" "You told me, that he was an important person and didn't have" "But nevertheless, this is bizarre, because this communist uncle... to me he appeared to be just another war criminal" "And not only him." "Be it my father on this photograph or the other people, drinking sake for me they all were nothing but war criminals" "Masuo, how is your mother?" "She is very weak, for about 2 or 3 months..." "It's a very long time to stay in bed, for a woman who has worked as a nurse!" "She is my daughter-in-law." "From tomorrow on, we will make her work." "But in her state of health..." "After all, she must not eat too fast" "They say, that in India, the half-starved children, who devoured their food too fast got dysentery and died soon after" "The same goes for you, Masuo" "And you, too, Mother-In-Law" "Eating less, you'll be better off it would be good, Masuo, if you would stay here in the countryside with grandmother" "In Tokyo, there is nothing but waste that the Americans use to fatten their pigs" "Yes" "Idiot!" "I'll take his father's place and responsibility and take Masuo with me to Tokyo... to complete his education" "But isn't Masuo your..." "What?" "Well, isn't he your own son?" "What'd you mean?" "Well, but..." "Well, but what?" "Isn't it possible?" "Me and Susumu, we have the privilege of being your legitimate sons though we are the sons of your mistress, but Mamoru..." "For Terumichi, things are almost sure, and about Setsuko and her daughter, you'll never know, who her father..." "And finally, there is 7 years-old Tadashi" "Am I not an all important person, even for the Communist Party" "Isn't it your Communist Party that turns everything into common property?" "A nurse that sleeps for two months, have you ever seen something alike?" "Russia, Russia." "All in all, Russia is disgusting" "Masuo, the Russian soldiers, were the dressed in red?" "No" "Ha!" "Everybody is convinced something has happened between Kiku and the Russian soldiers." "In sum, you insinuate, that a Russian soldier could act like grandfather" "A lie, a horrible lie!" "That's demagogy." "The Russian soldiers were friendly" "Hhm?" "Weren't they, Masuo?" "Masuo, what's your answer?" "They gave me brown bread." "In Russia, they call it..." "They called it Za..." "Za..." "Zakous" "And you accepted it nevertheless, didn't you?" "Yes" "And your mother, Masuo, what did she get?" "I don't know." "Have you been separated from your mother, in the concentration camp or elsewhere?" "That's what I thought." "In front of this child..." "Masuo!" "I perfectly like your habit" "What are you doing, Terumichi?" "Disinfection, disinfection!" "All of Japan will be disinfected..." "May I offer you some sake" "I'll take one, too" "All right, let's drink together" "Thank you very much" "Do you want one, too?" "Terumichi, that was the first sake of my life." "What did it taste like?" "I can't remember everything, for I was dazed." "You dazed me" "You'll get better, if you sleep a little" "What is it?" "What is it?" "A mole?" "A toad?" "Masuo, move." "Let me listen" "So what?" "I don't hear anything" "But you do" "What?" "What do I hear?" "Tell me, in Manchuria, did you eat snakes?" "Under the clear sun of Manchuria, Masuo ate snakes..." "Can you hear it?" "What do you hear?" "Get up, you're no kid anymore" "They buried him" "What did they bury?" "A treasure?" "Who did they bury?" "My younger brother" "They buried a baby, who was still breathing" "They covered it with earth, but I had the impression it was still crying and sol put my ear on the ground" "Mom had to drag me away with all her force" "And then we had to run like crazy to get back into the column... that was marching on" "Under the clear sun of Manchuria, Masuo buried..." "Tadashi, you won't tell anything of this to anybody" "That's a man's promise" "May I make this promise, too?" "Masuo, ask your mother not to tell this story to anybody" "Terumichi, you asked me whether we played baseball in Manchuria" "I liked your question" "In fact, I was trained by a professional from the Manchurian railway club" "Of course, Ritsuko and Tadashi didn't manage to catch my balls" "And even you had problems with your left hand in case you caught one" "At that moment, I felt..." ""something like sympathy for you for the first time" "Before that, I only knew that your fate mother had been my fathers fiancee" "Grandmother was obsessed with the idea that her only son had to marry a girl from a good family" "Since we were very young, they tried to make us rival against each other" "But then I didn't know yet, whom your mother had married... wand why you found yourself alone in the Sakurada family" "Strike!" "No, Mom." "It isn't fair" "Masuo has to throw more gently" "No, Masuo" "Throw them with all your force" "Your father used to play with that glove you're wearing, you know" "He was very strong" "I was one of his supporters, and I cried when he lost" "Shall we change?" "Could you sleep?" "Nothing but bizarre dreams" "What genre?" "They have nothing to do with you" "So, if you sleep another while, me, I'll think for a moment" "It's better not to think too much, you know" "Do you remember when we played baseball after the first memory service for my father" "First anniversary...in 1947 we didn't play baseball" "But, I'm sure." "You took the bat and Terumichi was the catcher" "No, you're mixing things up." "Only you played baseball." "Yes, only you" "But that's not true." "Your mother, Setsuko was the referee" "She praised me for my good throw" "You want to tell me, that my mother has lead you, so you became what you are?" "Setsuko, aunt Setsuko, you were there, weren't you?" "I stopped playing baseball." "It's over, I stopped playing" "Mom, I stopped playing baseball" "Aunt Setsuko, no!" "Setsuko!" "I could feel your eyes on my back" "Being absent while my mother died I was resigned to be blamed by everyone for the most part by grandfather" "But you, Setsuko, the way you looked at me, blamed me the most" "It stuck in my heart" "I felt ashamed by it, but physically it hit me like a pleasant shock" "In 7952, Masuo Sakurada, leader of the sports team of Komatsgawa wa highschoo}... represented the Tokyo highschools at the National Baseball Tournament in Osaka" "The evening before the quarter finals, I received a phone call that Mom had fallen into agony" "The next day, during the 8th inning of the quarter finals I missed the ball, that decided the match" "The score of 0:0 was lost" "Just at that very moment, Mom died" "Thinking about her, she was a very unhappy woman, full of sorrows" "She wasn't with her husband when he died, and she didn't see her son before her death" "That was her destiny" "In Manchuria, Mom seemed to be happy" "Indeed!" "Yes, she should be overjoyed to be buried in the Sakurada's family grave!" "Terumichi's mother wasn't that lucky" "Do you think it is luck to be buried in the Sakurada's family grave?" "For women it doesn't matter much" "All that matters, is you, Terumichi, and you, Masuo" "Japan has become independent" "It is your duty to stand firm and correct by the nation that has been changed by the blow of the defeat" "Remember the rows of souls of those, who disappeared, who died for the Fatherland!" "You, Masuo and Terumichi, you must not follow the example of grandfather nor Masuo's father" "What a horrible conversation." "It feels as if, molotov cocktails are flying back and forth!" "You know, Masuo, your father wasn't that type of pigheaded militarist who starts to run amok like a bull in front of a red cloth" "You defend him." "Didn't you have a love affair with him?" "You are offensive" "You should get married soon" "If there's enough room at your place, I'm ready to invite myself" "Ritsuko, you will marry Masuo or Terumichi" "That goes without saying." "The honorable Sakurada family has lost men of great value in the war" "There is no reason, to tell such dirty lies because no party of the family is satisfied" "The only ones satisfied, are you and me" "Despite our 9 years of separation?" "From now on, you'll be allowed to come back, and live with me" "No, let's leave it as it was, for the education of Terumichi both of us..." "For his education, you will come back, and live with me" "Terumichi, will you study law, to become a civil servant, too?" "What a disgusting education, isn't it?" "I've already abandoned university" "Ah!" "You will become a worker and pursue practical activities?" "What does "practical activities" mean?" "For Uncle lsamu, as a Party member "practical activities" might mean, for example to make everything in common, the production of children with women to his left, and women to his right" "Terumichi, how old are you?" "I'm 20" "And you, Masuo?" "I'm 19 years old" "I'm 16, grandma" "You said "it goes without saying" before" "That's really impossible" "In a word, Ritsuko, you have to love one of them" "Setsuko, after all that happened, I don't know what you told Ritsuko" "It seemed, as if you turned down Ritsuko" "Setsuko, on that particular evening, did you foresee what would happen?" "Will you even burn that glove?" "Give it to me, I'll give you something else in exchange" "What will that be?" "Do you really think you definitely can abandon baseball?" "Yes." "I'll definitely start university next year" "Then you shouldn't be surprised to read in the morning papers, that..." ""Young champion Masuo Sakurada cries a river for his beloved mourned mother"" "I don't care anymore." "I played baseball, but I hated it from the beginning" "But, isn't it the only thing that you can hold on to now?" "You say that now there's nothing else left to support me?" "It's just that, I cannot be the one, who..." "If..." "No, but in the place of..." "This is the last will of your father, Kanichiro Sakurada" "He asked me to preserve it, and to give it to you on your 20th birthday" "I didn't read it myself" "Why did you hide that in your heart for 6 years?" "I didn't especially hide it" "Shortly before his death, Kanichiro came to me and insisted that I should hand it over to Masuo" "Kanichiro didn't leave me a testament" "I have the right to know what he had in mind before he died" "I only respect his last will." "No more, no less" "What do you mean by "no more, no less"?" "Before his death, didn't Kanichiro pay you a visit?" "This was an unmoral and disgraceful act" "But from the very beginning, morality has been exceeded" "You drove a wedge between your own son and his fiancee only to possess her for yourself!" "That's the kind of morality, which..." "Shut up!" "Masuo, I'll call you later" "And what else?" "I loved Kanichiro." "And I believe that Kanichiro loved me lam an illegitimate child, by an unknown father, whose mother who was your sister, fled the family" "Therefore you opposed our marriage" "You, with all your power...and me, a 19 year-old, beseeching you with my tears..." "What do you complain about?" "Didn't I adopt you as my daughter, and didn't I marry you to a influential, pro-japanese, Chinese personality?" "I don't want to talk about that" "That was afterwards" "I had met Kanichiro in China a couple of times again" "Despite my feelings for him, that's all that happened" "On what did he count then?" "When Kanichiro came to see me, he already had decided to die" "We opposed you." "He, with his 22 years, and me, with my 19..." "You boast about this!" "No, I don't boast about it." "I'm just telling you the truth" "So don't you think that we should put an end to all that truth?" "Setsuko, come nearer" "If I approach you, do you think you really can put an end to it?" "I don't know for sure, but I'm determined to" "I didn't have the courage, to listen to your secrets any longer" "Neither did I have the courage, to come to your help, Setsuko" "Anyway, what could I have done?" "And you, could you have helped me?" "Setsuko, even now, I deceive myself" "The truth is, that you were my first love" "Grandfather, is this the beginning of a lesson?" "You don't understand." "It's the end of a lesson!" "So, let me study it" "The conclusion from this is already fixed" "Be my first teacher" "My lips" "My breast, too" "Now the other one" "No, don't hurry, stay calm" "Did you arrive in time?" "Yes, I like these ceremonies, because lots of things happen" "We have to stay through them, until the end" "Who is your father?" "Why do you suddenly ask this question?" "When you lived in Manchuria, did my father come to visit you?" "Yes, I remember very well..." "three or four times" "So what?" "What are you after, Masuo?" "Your father and my mother ...I'm...their daughter!" "Can you imagine that?" "I don't think, that it was possible, but..." "And even if it was possible, so what?" "In this case we would be..." "What?" "Brother and sister" "Despite coming from Tokyo, you're very thoughtful" "Anyway, I'd like to be your sister..." "Brother and sister..." "Yes." "Talk to me, as if you were my brother" "I'm not able to talk right now" "Okay, practical activities; kiss me!" "As a brother, kiss me here" "What are you doing?" "Now, we are no longer sister and brother!" "Mom's funeral was magnificent." "In fact it was so grand, that the people said that grandfather had offered himself his awn funeral during his lifetime" "Just before he was rehabilitated, grandfather had become vice president of a public engineering enterprise" "A lot of people visited to congratulate him" "Setsuko, in his last will my father wrote:" ""When you will have grown up, Japan will crumble under a communist regime. "" "You, my son, you will gather your companions around you and start fighting them" "In fact, he was mistaken" "He wrote these lines, on January 1st, 1946." "The emperor had just been obliged to declare in front of the Japanese people, that he was nothing but an ordinary human being" "My father thought that this would be ...the end of Japan, and decided to commit suicide" "Today it is difficult for me to feel that way" "Setsuko, the truth is, by starting university I wanted to stop playing baseball... wand become politically active" "But, I don't want to imagine, that you are the reason for this decision" "And you, Setsuko, you cried along time at the coffin of my mother" "But your tears, for whom did you shed them?" "KAGOSHIMA" "There's still some time left." "Shall we take a walk?" "What?" "Once on the ship, you can't turn back" "You think I'm not aware of that?" "Yes, it happens very often, that people don't turn back when they have the opportunity." "Afterwards, they regret it." "You're talking about yourself?" "Yes, about myself" "But you, did you never regret anything?" "You want to talk about our kiss?" "What is it?" "Against seasickness" "I'm not afraid of it" "The crossing takes about a day it isn't the first time" "When I left Manchuria, renaturalized, the crossing took much longer" "But that was a long time ago" "It feels like it was only yesterday" "It's a return ticket" "Of course." "You won't stay there, even if..." "Even if what?" "If Terumichi is alive, I will not need a return ticket" "Ritsuko, is this your definition of a life without regrets?" "What a horrible face you make!" "Returning or not, in any case our life, hasn't it begun with a return, when we had been renaturalized from Manchuria?" "Yes, maybe." "But if the renaturalization is the regret of the great Japanese empire... then we are all children barn from this regret" "This is valid for Setsuko, as well as you, Ritsuko... as for the children of war criminals like Tadashi" "Go, go, to the future!" "May it come or not" "Like father's pocket money Like the elders rules" "To the married couple!" "To the married couple!" "Happy songs, sad songs, from all the songs I listened to" "I can't forget but one, and that's the song of work!" "Hallo to you, the young!" "Hallo!" "Let's go!" "Yes, let's go!" "Because you are as learned as the English" "You use rubber and paper" "While the others still use their fingers to give relief" "Fingers aren't necessary anymore!" "To the bride!" "To the bride!" "Child of the Fatherland, bravely you go to war" "Bravely you leave your family" "As bravely you return without having shot your three rounds" "Drunken with beer and sake Bu!" "it is the knee of the beauty..." "In my dream Heloise has appeared, and she threatened me to cut it off" "When!" "woke up, I looked below my navel." "When you have done it with the first girl..." "To each his own." "It's my turn" "Song of my boarding school: "The Cup"" "With flowers in the cup With flowers..." "With flowers in the cup..." "A reflection of the moan in a cup of sake The wealthy city takes a bath in a dream of peace" "On the top of the hills that tower above it A dormitory of young people full of energy" "A dormitory of young people full of energy" "Next one!" "To you, Susumu!" "Go, Susumu!" "Carry on!" "Forget the Chinese prisons and sing "Chinese Nights" for us" ""Chinese Nights"" "He won't sing" "He reflects upon the crimes he committed in China and upon the lessons of President Mao" "He wants to be a new democrat, torn by his contradictions" "For him it isn't the moment to sing" "Susumu, I'm your sister-in-law, and I don't know much" "But from now on, we'll try to live for peace, independence and democracy" "Arise!" "ye starvelings, from your slumbers" "Arise!" "ye prisoners of want" "For reason in revolt now thunders" " And ends at last the age of cant" " Enough, enough, enough..." "Ritsuko, let us sing Japanese songs!" "Following his lead That carries me away with him" "My hair is flying in the wind Dancing wild, cheek to cheek" "My kimono, in complete disarray, my shame and joy" "The geisha's waltz is a dance of memory" "And you, Masuo?" "Bald as a demon But with the heart of a man" "I leave my mother To go overseas" "My friend, my brother, when will we meet again?" "What kind of song is this?" ""The Soul of the Manchurians"?" "What do you mean?" "Nothing special" "Okay, if Susumu won't sing, we'll pass it on to his son" "Tadashi, sing for us!" "In 100 places In far of!" "Manchuria" "In the twilight of the sun a companion rests under a stone" "Attacking the enemy fiercely Always in the first row" "Now he takes a rest him, the brave soldier" "At my side in the battle He suddenly fell" "I rushed to his help disobedient to the rules" "Should I have let him die this way With an emergency dressing only" "Answer me clearly!" "Since I was 7 years I haven't seen you anymore" "Father, I don't know who you are" "Answer me!" "What uncle lsamu just said, that's wrong, isn't it?" "Enough." "If you weren't my father, I wouldn't ask you anything" ""if it is for the country, don't be worried about us, Go, and don't hurry to come back!"" "Tadashi, those were the times in 1956'" "I didn't sing, and if) did..." ""it would have been a song that cried out:" ""No, to the Atomic Bomb"" "Those were the times" "That year it was said that the postwar era was over." "Your father had finished to serve his sentence was war criminal in China, and had been released" "But we didn't understand, what our fathers wanted to say:" "That it was because of this something, that fore- boding of a new era, that was beginning to show" "That's why my father commited suicide" "But you, you've put your father in the shade" "That depraved era, for you it was the one, when you were young" "It's whiskey." "Don't drink that fast" "Tadashi, you just made your father lose his face in front of everybody" "It's not enough to make him lose his face" "What does it take to make people talk who do not want to?" "Torture re" "What?" "In the Sakurada family, almost everybody knows what this is" "Grandfather practiced it when he worked for the Home Office" "Uncle lsamu has been beaten up often enough to stop him from participating in demonstrations" "My father did it at first, but later he changed sides" "They aren't funny, them, who always want to sing..." "Go, call for him" "Who?" "My father?" "Idiot!" "Angry young men like you will be ruined by alcohol" "But a girl, you know..." "Yes, you're right." "A girl, older than 20 isn't a girl anymore" "You want to torture Ritsuko?" "That depends on the mood of the moment" "You haven't come further than that?" "So it was useless, that I spied on you" "We were just to begin" "So, I'm inviting myself for a moment" "You are well hoisting one right now" "You, too." "Since when?" "With your lover, for example?" "What lover?" "I don't have one" "And you, Tadashi?" "What?" "That's unthinkable, isn't it?" "Nothing is unthinkable" "That's true" "Tadashi is very angry tonight, watch out for him" "Masuo, you really ask me to?" "Women aren't enough." "I..." "You really attach great importance to killing?" "Now, after I went to great pains to join you, your conversation is not very interesting" "Yes, I want to kill!" "What with?" "If that's all, you're just a boy" "Tadashi!" "That's not the way it should be drawn" "You hold it with both hands...and with your whole body you aim at your enemy's heart" "Because a man who's only hit lightly will not die easy" "I do understand that there are people who want to kill others but I don't understand why people want to kill themselves!" "Who does?" "My mother" "Aunt Setsuko?" "That's none of our business." "Yes it is!" "If Setsuko said so, we're totally concerned!" "Totally concerned!" "Why does she want to die?" "I don't know." "She only said, she wants to die" "Delusions!" "That's none of your business!" "But yes, it is!" "How does it concern us?" "Terumichi, you..." "It's been 4 years, since your mother's funeral, that I've seen aunt Setsuko" "I don't know the actual state of her soul" "Does it not concern this particular day, 4 years ago?" "I wasn't there on that particular day" "I'll go." "Wait!" "But you gave it to me, didn't you?" "With an old thing like this you'll only manage to kill one or two people" "Are your feelings that weak, that you would be satisfied with this?" "Without the will to exterminate, to seize the power and change the society it is useless to take up a weapon" "And the weapon of choice for that moment is the rifle" "Let me go!" "Go and rethink your ideas!" "Because I don't like to be with those who want to die I allow myself to stay with you tonight" "And quietly listen to you telling about what happened 4 years ago" "That's my futon!" "Then come in, please!" "I remember, that we promised to be sister and brother 4 years ago" "I hope you don't think it's unfair." "Well, who wants to begin?" "The way you're talking, makes it difficult to start" "Be more manly!" "Wasn't it your idea?" "Back then, Terumichi was way ahead of me, and in my place" "Can you be a bit more specific?" "Like this: in this room, Masuo lies to my left and Terumichi to my right" "Or: my leg and Terumichi's leg are entangled" "So grandfather took Setsuko in his arms" "And then?" "He caressed her" "What?" "At that moment, Terumichi entered the room" "Grandfather left:" "Setsuko was lying on her back" "I asked her to..." "You asked her to...?" "Setsuko was tender" "What do you mean by "tender"?" "As tender as I would have wanted her to be" "But it was Terumichi, whom your mother..." "Aha!" "And thereafter we became sister and brother!" "We aren't brother and sister" "I don't think of it as aunt Setsuko, who gave herself to me, Terumichi" "But I think of her as a woman, who gave herself away" "That moment, I longed for a female counterpart" "Was it only physical?" "You think that a female counterpart is only physical?" "I don't understand." "And besides that, Ritsuko..." "Don't be shy" "Me, too, would like to know, what this female counterpart means" "Have you ever been with a whore?" "I did sports, and my older friends took me with them" "Nobody visits a whore to find a female counterpart" "Even if you go there to find it, you'll always return without it" "It's complicated" "On the other hand there must be a male counterpart, too and I hope that it isn't as complicated" "Terumichi, get up" "Male counterpart, female counterpart, all this general talk" "However, Setsuko,as she was 4 years ago and Setsuko today..." "Masuo, do you think, that night 4 years ago is related to my mothers current desire to die?" "Perhaps it's not immediately related, but..." "In this case, what's the aim of our discussion?" "A research on masculinity and femininity" "Shall I call her?" "Me,I..." "Will you call her?" "No, I don't want to dig deeper into it but I simply want to know how Setsuko feels" "Now I understand, what I was looking for" "Me, too" "What is directly related to that night 4 years ago are your feelings for my mother" "Take it as a precaution" "Was it by chance, that your feelings surfaced and that they were connected with her desire to die?" "Tadashi, you saw me entering Setsuko's room" "I felt it I knew it" "Setsuko was sleeping peacefully" "I looked at her sleeping face" "Deep dawn inside of me, every sensation suddenly died... wand I recalled what I had been for the last 4 years, until this day" "Next spring I entered Kyoto university" "Terumichi had become grandfather's secretary in Tokyo... wand that was probably one of the reasons that I left Tokyo" "Terumichi was promoted to so-called secretary, but in fact, he didn't do anything... except reading thick tomes" "I started to let myself into the world of baseball, again that I had left so seriously" "Maybe there was a direct connection, but then it existed for more then 4 years" "Tadashi, you remember it, don't you?" "Since that day, when the four of us played baseball I had this feeling for Setsuko" "Meanwhile you, Tadashi, although you didn't know what was going an in my heart you spied on us for along time." "It was the proof of your youth" "As for me, I wasn't that young anymore" "Masuo, Ritsuko was only joking" "Don't take it serious" "You should know what's going on in a young girl..." "This sounds, as if I'm old lf l would be in love with someone nowadays I would possibly ask him to die with me" "Answer me only one question:" "That someone couldn't perhaps be Terumichi?" "Did he tell you that?" "Yes" "I don't know what he told you, but I only gave in to the desires of a young man" "That particular moment, and though I wasn't this young anymore he still moved my heart" "Setsuko!" "What?" "Until now, I never did something extraordinary and in the future, I believe I'll be a good-for-nothing" "I don't care to die now" "You embarrass me" "Your father wasn't that generous" "If he had been, I would have..." "But that was 10 years ago" "I have gone through too much, Masuo, but the next time, it will be my funeral" "Despite all, I accept your gesture" "You wont..." "No, I only keep it" "Tadashi, did you watch Setsuko' s room?" "Because after I had gone, something happened" "The next day, Setsukos body was discovered near the pine tree, behind the house" "Nobody opposed grandfather who said that it was suicide" "Tadashi, take it!" "Tadashi, you didn't move, except for a cold smile" "Tadashi, do you know the true reason for Setsuko's death?" "During the funeral ceremony, they heavily insisted, that it was suicide" "But I never suspected grandfather to have killed Setsuko" "And it wasn't the reason, why I hated grandfather." "In 5 hours we'll arrive on the island" "Once arrived, I feel, that I will lose you forever your hand your hair your lips..." "These lips that have done nothing, but make fun of me, since my childhood" "You know the story of the flying Dutchman?" "It's the story of a captain who had been cursed by God" "Since then he wanders around the seven seas all alone without being able to die" "Me too, I am a victim of this curse" "I'd like to wander around with you in eternity, torn back and forth between the seas" "You know, that you're not damned" "You only like to be" "But I'm no longer able to make fun of your fate" "Shall we go on deck?" "Ritsuko, if Terumichi's telegram proves true would you marry me?" "The appendix!" "She'll get an injection" "Stay calm" "Hello!" "I just received news that the bride has an inflammation of the appendix, but..." "Tadashi!" "I'm sorry." "Shouldn't I have mentioned it?" "That's not the problem" "What kind of uniform is this?" "This is a police uniform" "Were aren't in a public place." "Go and change!" "It's my intention to dedicate myself to the public 24 hours a day" "I don't have anything to change, but underwear and pajamas" "But you are a member of the Sakurada family" "You may excuse yourself from the ceremony" "Tadashi, go and change!" "If the appendix won't get better what will become of the ceremony?" "Don't worry about that, go and change fast!" "I don't have the intention to" "Did she have a surgery?" "So, someone has to go to the hospital..." "No, visits are forbidden and anyway, I'll take care of it" "What about the ceremony?" "Before she had undergone the surgery, we should have..." "Isn't the bride just shirking?" "Not at all!" "The bride had problems with her appendix before and after all these wedding preparations..." "The notion of "shirking" may be inappropriate but doesn't it give the impression, that she's lost all interest in the wedding?" "No, she had a real appendix crisis, and in about 5 days..." "An appendix is something very practical" "If there had been a mirror I 'd seen the face of a man, who had been abandoned by his future wife" "Ritsuko, what face did I make?" "At the age of 28, without wanting to I'd marry on request of grandfather" "And on top of that, I had been abandoned by my future wife." "But in fact, I had been saved" "I was ready to flee, too" "It was miserable" "I've had 10 years of holidays, and I've had the vague idea to profit from it... wand to somehow leave on a lonely voyage" "The ceremony will take place as planned" "Without the bride?" "The important members of both families are present" "The wedding banquet will be sufficient to officially confirm the marriage" "Once the appendix is cured, we'll celebrate in private" "Are you sure about that?" "What is hiding for once, isn't that easy to be recovered" "But we don't live in your era of secret societies anymore" "Today the Japanese police is the best in the world" "Exactly!" "Tadashi, this uniform again!" "It was true, we had left behind the troubled post-war era" "Only I had a bad time now a brideless wedding ceremony" "Now, may I allow myself to present the bride" "But before doing so, I'll say a few words" "None of these bad customs introduced to Japan from foreign countries after the end of the war, not the tiniest bit has rubbed off on her" "She is a perfect and pure Japanese girl" "And to prepare herself for this splendid day she has dedicated herself for a month, no, for several months to purify her body and her soul" "After she said goodbye to her parents this morning she got ready to leave when all in a sudden she had a dangerous crisis of the appendix" "Notwithstanding that, suppressing her suffer, she insisted that the ceremony should pass as planned" "But as this ceremony is the matter of a single day, whereas the marriage is a matter of a whole life" "After the parents-in-law have been consulted for their advise I decided to admit her to the hospital" "This decision, as well as the splendid enthusiasm of the young wife in my humble opinion, merit great approval" "Great politicians are in fact skillful" "For the first time I pondered upon the one... who isn't at my side now" "Listening to the talk about the "perfect and pure japanese girl" I found it bizarre, that I ever had believed in it" "Right now, where is she hiding herself?" "She is far from being afraid of the Japanese police!" "It's the husband's turn to cut up the wedding cake" "May I ask you to applaud" "The bride leaves for a moment to change her dress" "Let's accompany her with our applause and open our dinner" "The bride returns from changing" "May the husband go to meet her" "May the husband go to meet her" "That's embarrassing!" "How long will this comedy go on?" "With all these politicians and financiers who are poisoning Japan!" "What else do you want me to do?" "Denounce such a farce!" "If you won't do it!" "..." "Outline plan for the reorganization of the new Japan" "First the emperor is..." "Ritsuko, at that moment we were far from each other" "Even if there was this brideless wedding and that little incident, I thought, that me, you and Terumichi should have returned to our routine" "But what followed found us again, face to face:" "When Tadashi left the hotel he was hit by a car, and died" "Sixth, outline plan of the revolt..." "First: acquisition of weapons from our companions, who work for the police the pistols from each of them the basic weapons from each section..." "Second: the police depots of ammunition and our companions, who work in these depots..." "Come on, come on..." "It was her, who draw back..." "Okay, cry a while" "Don't cry" "Tadashi, was influenced by silly ideas, and he acted stupid" "It's normal that he died" "No reason for him to be alive" "But Tadashi didn't commit suicide!" "Somebody killed him!" "Yes, he had been wiped out by your communist friends or some other guys!" "He was neither killed nor murdered it was a car accident" "Yes, an accident" "Like the dangerous appendix crisis of the bride" "She was shirking" "Masuo has been abandoned" "I'm not " the man from Manchuria" anymore" "Now I'm the abandoned man" "Is this the night of a death-watch, or a wedding night?" "I understand your feelings" "There's nothing to laugh about" "Seventh: target of the attack all the secretaries of state" "But you won't continue to cry like that for long" "It's really funny, isn't it, Masuo?" "Perhaps it's better, that she decided to stay away" "It could have led to an interruption of your wedding night" "We were lucky" "In fact, what am I crying about?" "Was I sad because of Tadashi's sudden death?" "Or had the ceremony humiliated me?" "Maybe because I was drunk, and wasn't quite sure about myself..." "Ritsuko!" "You didn't say a ward, but I felt, that you were at my side" "I vaguely remember that grandmother and uncle Mamoru... were telling stories about wedding nights" "I really don't know, why I did that" "I think it was the alcohol" "Well, on the inside of the handkerchief of the bride instructions for the first night are written..." "No, there is no writing" "There aren't any paper handkerchiefs" "Me, too, asked myself during my first night when I saw grandfather's, how this will work..." "Grand ma, your coat..." "What do you want?" "Hand it to me" "Calm, peaceful, without fear..." "Be natural and let me do it" "Masuo!" "It's my wedding night" "Are you crazy?" "After all that has happened?" "Real, perfect and purely Japanese her breasts...her beautiful nipples ...they are mine" "Let's call a psychiatrist With a lunatic..." "No, let's see, if the people will learn..." "Finally we are alone, just the two of us!" "There's nothing to be ashamed of." "I love you." "Relax your legs" "What's this noise?" "See yourself, your son!" "Pure and perfect Japanese my body is yours, and your body is mine" "Masuo, I did believe you were no good at anything but baseball..." "But I didn't imagine you to be that stupid!" "You, the youngest son of Kazuomi Sakurada!" "Real Japanese..." "What the heck are you doing?" "Are you crazy?" "Not at all!" "...True Japanese!" "Leave me alone!" "Enough!" "Leave me alone, idiot!" "Pure and perfect Japanese ...Relax your legs..." "Isn't that enough now?" "You've done enough!" "At least for this wedding night, which you are responsible for" ""Targets of attack:..."" ""...b) all the Secretaries of State and Members of Parliament: sentenced to death."" ""All the ministeries' civil servants and provincial civil servants:..."" ""...forced labour..."" "Relax." "If it hurts you, tell me" "What are you doing?" "Here are these lunatics!" "I found him being strange all the time" "That's what he really is..." "Get out of there!" "Grandma, please tell him to get out!" "But why should I?" "If he's crazy there's nothing we can do about it and he won't listen, anyway" "He exaggerates!" "Yes, he exaggerates!" "Masuo, it's enough now" "Ritsuko, if you'd accepted to marry me..." "But you know, I've already spent my first wedding night" "Terumichi!" "Masuo, take Ritsuko's hand" "Now we are connected" "How I longed to hear that uproar." "But where will it lead?" "Terumichi, you won't leave us alone!" "Ritsuko, if you'd accepted to live with me I would have left this house..." "Masuo, promise me to hold her back until I've left" "Terumichi!" "And me!" "He leaves..." "He parts..." "Yes, he parts..." "Ritsuko, as Terumichi told me, I held you close" "You could have getaway from me, if you had wanted to, ...and have followed him, but you stayed... was if you had been spellbound by him" "Terumichi decided to leave grandfather, under the condition that I'll marry you and we'll live at grandfather's" "But neither Ritsuko, nor me knew w anything about this agreement between Terumichi and grandfather" "Ritsuko, since that day Terumichi has left grandfather's house in Tokyo and never returned" "Later I learned, that Terumichi was the child of grandfather..." ""and that young girl, that had been promised to my father" "Shortly after this, grandmother, who liked Terumichi very much... wand who was responsible for his upbringing, died" "I was waiting for him to show up at her funeral, but in vain" "A propos, the bride, that had abandoned me never showed up" "And you, Ritsuko, though we both lived in Tokyo... we haven't seen each other again for ten years" "May I express my condolences on your grandfather's death" "Thank you" "It's been a long time since we've seen each other" "Yes, it's been a long time" "Did everybody arrive?" "The uncles are almost..." "I didn't have the time, to talk to Ritsuko whom I haven't seen for 10 years" "I was in charge of the biggest..." ""funeral ceremony, that had ever... taken place within the Sakurada family" "Politicians and important personalities had come to be present at it" "Financieres had even come from the province to Tokyo" "I was like a machine, repeating the same wards aver and aver again" "Since grandfather had fallen into agony at the hospital I didn't sleep for three days in order to prepare the watch" "Even if I wanted to, I didn't have the time to abandon myself to any emotion about the death of my grandfather" "I had lived my life until this moment, always trying to escape the big responsibility that I had to wards the Sakurada family" "Be it baseball, be it my choice... . . to join Kyoto University, be it to abandon the company I was working for or starting to work as a baseball coach... mat my old highschool" "Lots of people continuously told me to abandon baseball wand that they would help me, if I decided to become grandfather's successor" "My uncles wanted me to marry again quickly to have a descendant" "In the end, I was really fed up with all of that" "You..." "Poor..." "Masuo, I feel so sorry for you" "You don't need to feel sorry for me" "I'm worried about you" "Pardon me" "Stop it!" "What happens to you?" "It is heavy, painful, the soil falling down on..." "The soil?" "I am intered." "Buried." "Bit by bit my breath..." "Masuo, I feel sorry for you" "It's painful, I suffocate." "But I feel good" "No..." "I'm beginning to sink" "My eyes close" "It's the soil, it's the smell of the soil" "My ears close" "...my mouth is filled with earth" "The pores of my whole body are sealed the earth can't be detached from my body anymore on the surface, somebody listens to my voice... my big brother...no, me" "TE..." "RU..." "Ml..." "CHI DEAD STOP SIGNED..." "TE..." "RU..." "Ml..." "CHI" "TERUMICHI..." "DEAD..." "STOP..." "SIGNED TERUMICHI" "When we arrived at Terumichi k cabin... there was a bright light" "The very moment, I began to think I'd been fooled Ritsuko shouted:" ""He's alive!"" "Then she squat at the spot... while I went to the front of the cabin... wand called Terumichi's name" "There was no response" "Then Ritsuko slowly came closer" "I tried to open the door" "To my surprise, all doors were nailed" "Now, Ritsuko cried out for the first time: "Terumichi!"" "It was a voice, that called for a dead man" "We crashed in the door, like crazy... wand entered the cabin" "It was completely empty" "Terumichi had removed every trace of his life" "Only his corps was laying there" "His last will was placed upon the newspaper that had announced grandfather's death..." "I just wanted to start to read it aloud, but Ritsuko stopped me, saying..." ""I'll read it first!"" "Last will:" ""I am the only one who can continue the Sakurada line"" ""By killing myself now, I destroy the Sakurada family"" "Masuo, you'll be late for your ship." "You should go." "You're in charge of the funeral services in Tokyo" "I'll stay here..." "Ritsuko, you intend to die here, don't you?" "Yes... but I can take care of everything by myself" "Fool!" "You think I'm able to leave, knowing that?" "Then you intend to stay, and witness my death?" "Strike!" "Did you find it?"