Shikoku (1999)

[bunniefuu]

The Village of Yaku Kochi Prefecture.
Shikoku

Your mother and father are here

They want to hear your voice again

It's so bright!

I can't see!

Mom?

Where are you?

Here!

Why did this happen to me?

I want to go home!

Akihiko

I want to get out of here!



SHIKOKU

Fumiya

And all my homework was done too!

They won't miss us
You two catch cold all the time

It's so exciting skipping school

I wan't to get out of this village

There's lots of things I want to do

Hello

Sayori, shall we go?

No!

Mother's waiting

Sayori!

Lets go

Sayori!

Sayori!

Hinako...

You saw, didn't you.



Promise you won't tell anyone

Not even Fumiya

Or we aren't friends anymore

I'll get someone!

Hinako!

Mister! My friend's drowning!

Quick!

You OK?



No! I want to stay with Sayori!



Hinako. Hurry!

Will you come on!

You know the address

Call when you get there

I will, thanks.

Take care

Cheer up
You'll make friends there

I'll be in touch when we get to Tokyo

Good luck with the new job

Hinako

You've got to go

Bye

Write to me

Hinako... come on

Thanks for everything

Hello

I'm on a bus right now.

Can I call you back?

To my home town...

in Kochi

A family matter

Let's not start that again

I'm just tired, that's all

It's the truth, isn't it?
You always...

No Service

Hello

Mom!

Is she here?

Hello! I thought it was you
when I heard the bus!

It's been years...

You've grown up so beautiful!

This is Shota

Hello

Say hello!

Come in! My husband's off

getting ready for the festival

Come in. You must be tired!

I'd like to see the house first



What are you going to do? Sell it?

I'll look at it and talk to my father

It'd be sad having no place
to come back to

I took a futon over

I'll bring the key

Shota, get the key

It's so tiny!

It's been so long!

Fumiya

Hello!

Mr Hiura!

It's Myojin Hinako...

Hello?

It's Hinako from Tokyo...

Mother! Can you help me?

Coming!

What is it. Youkari?

Bring me a stool?

You can't do that all by yourself!

Yukari?

Yukari...

I'm Hinako. We were in school

Hinako?!

Just line them up here...

So you'll be here a while?

Yes

Yukari. Hurry with the beer!

Coming!

What?

Nothing

Sayori was in our class, too.

Hiura Sayon

What's she doing?

You didn't know?

Sayor died

A long time ago

In high school

She drowned

Sorry to keep you waiting!

Put that over there

I came here to have fun. Not to work!

Know who that is?

Who?

Hinako

Hi

Fumiya?

It's been a while.

Remember when

Sayori saved me from drowning?

Yeah

I was terrified of what would happen

if she left me

I felt so safe holding onto her

I wanted to see her

Her mother's gone on a pilgrimage

every year since she died

She says they're doing it together

Where's her father?

He's been in the hospital in town for years.

He had an accident

Accident?

He was climbing Mt Ishitsuchi...

... Over in Ehime Pretecture. He fell off a cliff.

I had no idea

What do you do in Tokyo?

I design packages,

do the arwork...

Wow!



Have you been here all this time?

I went to university in Kochi,

then worked three years in Osaka

I came back last year.
I work in the village office.

I see.

I wanted to see Sayori...

What?

It felt like she was watching us.

I thought I saw someone at her house

Her mother maybe?

No, she's on her pilgrimage.

There's no one there.

I see...

what a mess!

Someone called the village office.

Must have been someone from the festival

It makes my blood run cold!

Ever gone in there?

No

They say there's a curse on anyone who does.

You never know...

Did someone really cut the heads

of the Jizo statues in the Valley?

Yeah.



Should we contact anyone, Mr Sakai?

No.

No?

Leave the valley of the Gods to the gods.

That's not our juristiction.

Have you ever gone in there?

Why would I?

The only ones who go there are the Hiuras.

Sayori had changed.

It was just after that.

She wanted to leave here and do things...

But she was the next Hiura priestess.

She and her father fought her mother

over her going to high school

I didn't know any of that.

I wrote and wrote but she never answered.

This is you...

Yeah.

She liked you. You know. Did you know that?

We were going out.

I'm sorry...

That's all right.

I should get back to work.

Oh, it's you. Hinako..
what are you doing here?

Someone from your office
brought me over.

Something wrong?

Yeah. I saw Sayori last night.

I thought I was dreaming,
but somehow it was different.

Don't talk like that!

'The newly dead come stand by you bed,' they say.

It was just a dream!

I found this where I saw her.

I gave her this when I moved away.

Don't talk crazy!

Maybe she want's to tell me something.

Like what?

Who wrecked those statues?

I saw something at her house.

Something strange is going on!

It was said that

Sayori hadn't drowned in the river...

... but that she'd called up
an evil spirit that took her away.

Fumiya!

This place has some connection
to the Hiura family

I saw her too.

We need a light.

Let's go.

Don't be silly!

You didn't see Grandpa!

Hiura Yasutaka.

He's been like this
for the past eight years.

He can't move or speak.

Can he hear?

He doesn't react when
you talk to him.

Call me if you need me.

?

Mr Hiura's that bad, is he?

I'd keep away from the Hiuras
if I were you.

People here won't like it.

What?

You're not one of us any more.

You shouldn't spend so much time
with Fumiya, either.

All we're doing is talking.

This isn't Tokyo.

That's for sure.

Did you know that Sayori...

...was angry at you after you moved?

She said you were a stuck-up
for moving Tokyo.

Stuck-up?!

She burned your letters.

She was mad because you'd left first.

She wanted to leave here too.

She was always alone somehow...

...even in middle school.

Maybe she need someone
who'd do what she told her...

...and she thought that her friend
had betrayed her.

You were always like a follower of hers.

Like you were attached to her.

Me?

Like sh*t sticks to a goldfish.

I didn't say that. Sayori did.

When she burned your letters.

What's wrong?

It was hard for her.

She had to argue even to go
to high school.

She was jealous of you.

I guess she didn't think of me
as a friend.

That's not true.

How could you think that?

The three of us were so close!

Sayori was very determined.

In middle school she was even more
that way...

Then when you were here.

She didn't have the innocence
she'd had when we were together.

It's OK, Fumiya.

Maybe it's you she wants to see.

Maybe I shouldn't have come.

You know...

...I feel relaxed when I'm with you.

I've never felt like that.

Are you OK?!

Mr Sakai!

You'll be fine! Hang on!

What happened?

Mr Sakai just collapsed!

Go back to Tokyo.

When you're here there's
ghosts everywhere!

This way. Mr Oda.

What is this place?

Well, I've never been here before.

Wouldn't the villagers know more?

They don't like to talk about it,
and they don't come here.

You've heard of Yomi?

Yomi.

The underworld?

Yes. The land of the dead.

But a land in which
the dead still have bodies.

In the myths, the gateway is always
a cave like this.

Maybe once people thought
that's what this was.

Someone's been here.

What is this?

It's like there's been a ceremony.

Fifteen staves.

I'll se what I can find out.

Have you ever heard of the
House of Hiura?

'Hiura'?

You know the name?

I saw an ad once for a book

by someone named Hiura.

Something to do with the history
of Shikoku island.

But i don't think
it was ever published.

Folklore Studies

By Oda Nobuo

Coming Soon. The Ancient History
of Shikoku. By Hiura Yasutaka.

Do you know what 'the pilgrimage' is?

You visit the temples, don't you?

The first is at Tokushima.
You go all the way around Shikoku...

... and end up at Kagawa.

You can start wherever you like...

...but you go around in order.

The custom is centuries old...

...but according to Sayori's father...

...it was meant to make the island
a holy precinct.

A what?

A magic circle, a barrier between
this world and the next.

If the line was broken,
the barrier would fall.

Meaning?

Shikoku, 'the four lands', would be

Shikoku, 'the land of the dead'.

Sayori's mother is always
doing the pilgrimage.

Why, I wonder...

Shikoku... 'Land of the Dead'

To turn the character for 'four'
into the one for 'death'...

We might find out more
if we saw Mr Hiura's book.

There were staves in the Valley?

Not ?

No, just . Why?

There was this weird mark

on the ceiling above his bed.
It looked like a .

Sayon was when she died.

Mr Hiura know something...

...and he's trying to tell us.

There's a back way in.

Fumiya...

'The Ancient History of Shikoku'

These are the seals of the temples.

There's so many...

There's .

of these sliding doors.

It look like seals on each one.

She's been around times.

Now she's on the th...

Let's go.

This isn't right.

They start from the last one...

...and end at the first.

Backwards.

They're all in reverse order.

I'll see what I can find out.

Fumiva...

Sayori's always been watching over me.

Alive or dead. She always has.

I can't get her out of my mind.

She was never in doubt
about what she wanted.

It was stifling.

... but I was happy that someone
would love me lika that.

She was the only one
who cared that much for me.

I should forget her.

Every girl I've gone out with

I've compared to Sayori.

They don't compare to her.

I must be weird, too.
There's no one like her.

If I go on like this,
I'll never be in love with anyone.

You said...

With you. I can forget Sayori.

That's the truth.

Forget her...

...and start over.

Forget her.

Yaku is right in the center of Shikoku.

'The pilgrimage describes a circle
centered on the Valley in Yaku.'

The Valley...

'Here are enshrined
the Hiura family gods...

'...who grant it's women

extraordinary spiritual powers.'

'Spiritual powers'...

Fumiya!

Fumiya!

I've seen that...

I've seen that look on her face!

Let go!

Let go!

Hinako...

Let go!

Let go!

Hinako!

Let go!

I shouldn't have seen!
She's always hated me for that!

The priestess circles the pillar
to the right...

...in the ceremony to seal off
the land of the dead.

And she goes the other way?

Circling right seals it;
circling left breaks the seal.

It's only old folklore.

Sayori's mother is visiting
the temples in reverse order.

She's trying to unseal...

That's impossible!

But we saw someone who's dead.

Both of us!

Oh, please!

I'm not thinking about Sayor any more.

I'm with you now.

Wait...

Try this man.

He's at Mt Ishitsuchi.

Sento Naoro?

There's a group of pilgrims
who've been circling Shikoku for years.

He's one of them.

Why?

To seal off Shikoku.

I've been away.

tesIt's finished.

Soon the girl will come back.

No one can interfere any more.

I've beaten you.

To the left is the path to the dead.
The one which breaks the seal.

The other path
you circle Shikoku once for

each year of the dead persons age.

The dead of Shikoku ascend Mt Ishitsuchi
and are purified there.

But one too strongly attached
to this world may not ascent Mt Ishitsuchi.

It is these souls who grows restless.

They know that by the other path
they may return to this world.

And what happens then?

if the gate to Yomi opens

the spirits of the dead
take on flesh and return

It won't just be the girl All the dead will return
in the flesh of this world.

She was ?

Yes.

If her mother was gone times,

and is on her th...

She might be done by now.

Go back now.

If the mother has returned
to the village you have to stop her...

...from causing any more evil
than she already has.

Is this true?

It can't be!

Blood pressure?

No reading.

You've come back to me!

You are the next priestess of Hiura!

All the trouble I've gone to
to bring you back!

Now it's finally over

The gods of our house would not forgive me
for allowing our blood to die with me.

Your father tried to interfere.
I had to push him off a cliff!

Forgive me...

Sayori!

Sayori!

It's... so... bright...

How's that?

You're back! Do you understand?

Mother...

Want... to... see... Fumiya...

You'll see him!

The two of you will continue
this house.

That's what we'll do.

No!

What are you saying!

You'll bear Fumiya's child. A girl.

You'll make me so happy.

I hate this house!

I want to see Fumiya.

What's the matter?

I want to see Fumiya!

Mother?

It looks like she's been here.

Fumiya...

I'll go to the Valley.

Wait here in case she comes back.

Mrs Hiura?

Hinako...

I...

...I'm alive.

I want to see...

Fumiya!

Fumiya!

I saw Sayon!

She was there!

Fumiya...

I wanted to see you...

I've come back...

... just the way I was.

Fumiya?

No.

No.

Hinako...

... do you think

just by holding hands you make him yours?

He just feels sorry for you,
that's all.

Dumb old Hinako...

You think just by following me around...

... you'll be like me?

You can't do anything yourself.

You don't even know
what you want to do.

I always believed in myself.

And Fumiya suffered for that!

He suffered all along!

Fumiya always knew...

.... what he wanted...

... what he wated to do.

But you're dead!

Do a person's feelings
have to die with them?

Does the fact that I love Fumiya...

Have to die, too?

Let's get out of this village.

Leave that crybaby behind.

I can't.

Why not?

Fumiya...

Hinako...

Fumiya?

I...

I...

I...

No!

No!

The dead must not return!

You are no longer of this world!

What's wrong with me being alive?

Can't I live?

Why did I have to be the one
to never grow up?

I wanted to love Fumiya.

I wanted to grow up
and live the life I wanted to.

I was so jealous of you.

Sayori!

Come!

Scatter those rocks!

Hinako...
Help me!

Scatter them!

I can't.

You must!

I can't!

Sayori!

No!

Stop.

Stop!

Now their spirits
will ascend Mt Ishitsuchi.

And you will live.