Pastoral Hide and Seek (1974) - full transcript
A young boys' coming of age tale set in a strange, carnivalesque village becomes the recreation of a memory that the director has twenty years later.
We've got Carpenter Street, Temple Street,
Rice Street, Buddha Street.
But hey, swallow bird, isn't there a street
where they would buy old mothers?
My little brother and the bird:
Went off to buy a new family altar
and vanished without a trace.
Are you ready?
Not yet!
Are you ready?
Ready!
In the midst of a young girl's loose hair:
The word "funeral" spelled
in the language of flowers.
As I go to bury
my dead mother's red comb,
there's only wind howling over
the Scary Mountain.
PASTORAL:
To die in the country
This clock has been ringing
for three days without a pause.
It must be very old...
No! It always rings so nicely!
Can you make it stop?
You're going to break it!
Can you be more careful?
What are you doing?
Can I take it home for repair?
It will only take a few days.
No, that won't do!
It would bring us bad luck,
if the clock is taken off the wall.
Then, I don't think
I can repair it.
You're staring at my wife again!
I'm sorry,
I am very sorry.
Shin-chan, it's you!
Are you back?
She must be the daughter of that...
No, the daughter of...
More likely the grand-daughter of...
But she looks like the niece of...
And she's pregnant!
She's going to give birth to a bastard.
It's just a little discomfort.
As it's the Day of the Dog...
you ought to wear a red
and white maternity corset.
I'm sorry to cause so much trouble.
Whatever you do, don't touch a horse.
A mare takes twelve months to bear a foal.
And don't say the word "horse" either...
or you'll have a difficult labor.
Mommy! The woman next door
is really attractive.
Oh, is she?
I saw her taking a nap yesterday.
She's just my type!
Mommy!
I want to get circumcised.
What?
Circumcised.
Who told you about that?
Nobody. I read it in one
of your magazines.
You mustn't read those!
Just read the comic books
I buy for you.
They say it keeps you from growing up,
and that it's not clean.
I should get rid of it at once.
What will I look like
if you keep on with all this nonsense?
When will I start getting hair?
My best friend's got some already.
Shin-chan!
You should listen to what I tell you,
or else it will make me really angry.
Don't you think about
all this nonsense!
Better think about school.
You're still a child.
Where are you going
at this time of the night?
To the Scary Mountain.
- What's there?
- I want to see Father.
Whenever I scold him,
he runs off to tell his father.
When did it become like this?
His father wouldn't confide
in an oracle.
Father!
Father, darling!
It's me, your wife.
The needles have grown rusty
in the needle box,
yet the rift between me and my mother
remains un-stitched.
She rubs and polishes the family altar,
her only piece of dowry,
until it shines to reflect
her artificial eyeball.
An altar!
Who'd like an altar?
Would you care for an altar?
In the falling twilight...
a bell tolls afar.
Where have they buried...
my dead father's flute?
I'd like to speak to someone
who died in 1943.
You who were born on September 4, 1910
and departed on August 3, 1943...
from the Kingdom of Dead
wherein you are resting...
come forth onto this world of ours.
I am your father.
I am your father.
You all right, Dad?
It's good of you to come.
Thank you for calling me.
I haven't brought you anything.
I've just come to talk.
In the world where I'm living,
presents are of little use.
I can no longer appear before you, but
I can speak to you through an oracle.
Would you like to know
what's going on at home?
If you say your prayers,
my spirit will always guard you.
I know everything that's going on at home.
I have nothing to ask.
Dad...
What?
It's Mom.
She's always nagging.
Fate has separated us.
We must resign ourselves to that.
You must obey your mother.
I won't!
In spring,
I will run away from home.
Are you asleep?
What's the matter?
Nothing. I've just left a pressed
flower under your bed.
I'm sorry!
It's so gorgeous!
Loony soldier! Loony soldier!
Granny, I want to buy a rattle.
I'll put the money here.
It's spring already,
and it hasn't gotten any better at all.
Can't you make your wife
take care of her duties?!
She doesn't even know
how to keep accounts.
I've heard it before, Mother.
Nor how to do laundry!
When she washes your underwear, I have
to do it again when she isn't looking.
That's the only reason why it's clean!
She can't even boil an egg!
She's never heard of weeding!
I've spent enough money
to buy her for you.
She's gotta be working
to get my money's worth.
Look!
There's a circus!
Come on, one-two-three!
One-two-three!
You idiot, can you watch
what you're doing?!
No slacking down!
Pull yourself together!
Not like this!
No-no-no!
Hey!
Can you pump me up?
Come on, pump me up!
All right.
Like this.
How is it?
All right?
Yeah, it's good.
You moron, you're doing it again!
I shouldn't leave it here.
Hey you, get outta here!
Come back on Sunday, OK?
On Sunday!
Or the bogeyman will get you!
What the hell!
The flame-like flowers of amaryllis
cast into rapid waters:
What sacrifice does a red flower make?
I shall cut off my eyelids
to see better.
The razor blade reflects the horizon.
Hey! You!
Come on in!
- Me?
- Yes, you.
- How old are you?
- Fifteen.
You're a real man then!
There is a pump over there.
Could you please bring it over?
You connect it in here...
and start pumping as hard as you can.
Like this?
No. Much harder!
Wait a bit...
No. That's hopeless.
The air isn't coming in.
Oh, you've got a watch!
Is it a toy one?
It's a real watch.
It's ticking!
In the circus, everyone has a watch.
Really?
But then you must argue a lot!
Why?
Because you wouldn't know
whose watch to trust.
Everybody's got a watch,
and they all travel together...
- Will you, Mommy?
- No!
- Please?
- No, there's no way.
It doesn't have to cost much.
We could find one on sale.
The time is meant to be kept
at home, inside a big clock.
Why would you put it inside
a watch and carry it around?
It makes no sense!
All we have is each other,
we're one family.
Why would you need your own watch?
Don't we have a clock already?
But isn't it broken?
No, it's totally alright!
It's our family clock!
Cry, baby bird,
and make my mother rest asleep...
before she is cast away
in the mountains.
The little devil playing hide-and-seek
has grown up.
Who is it that the festive villagers
keep looking for?
You haven't heard?
A clerk from the Town Hall's disappeared...
with the official register
of everyone in the village!
He ran off with the records? When?
This morning.
Then they've all lost their identities!
What a disaster!
Now through a tunnel.
Now it's chugging uphill.
You're very good at it.
I've never actually been
on a train. Have you?
Yes. That's how I came here.
Where did you come from?
That's my secret!
Tell me...
Would you like to go on a train someday?
Of course, how would I?
Would you like to run away with me?
But it's impossible!
Aren't you already married?
You belong to such an important family!
That doesn't matter.
I can't stand them.
I've always wanted to run away.
After all,
they forced me to come here.
Do you want me
to leave by train with you?
Yes, that's right. Will you help me?
I'll do anything you say.
I want to elope.
"Elope: To run away with a lover...
against a disapproval of the family."
Wow, it's stopped!
Do you like it?
I'm the best at it!
Like this!
Does it feel good?
After all,
we're husband and wife.
There is nothing
to be embarrassed of.
Like this?
Is it good?
It's swelling!
That's the trick!
Too bad! I've thrown it away.
You'll never be pumped up again!
Why did you do that?
Your hubby gets on my nerves.
Little jerk!
You're jealous, aren't you?
Shut your face, you big lump!
A guy like me can have all
the women he wants.
You. Come here!
I don't believe you.
You're kidding.
You idiot, it's no joke!
Without that padding.
You're no use to anyone!
They'll say anything at all.
Underneath,
he's still in love with me.
It's over. I've got a daughter.
Aren't you pretty?
I'm going to show you to everybody!
Right?
So cute!
Look!
Careful!
I've never seen such a pretty baby!
Let me hold him.
- He'll make a fine soldier.
- No, it's a girl!
Concentrate on what you're doing!
What's that noise?
It must be the stray dog.
Is it?
It's coming from your room.
The one that was knocking
against the shutters yesterday.
Shin-chan!
Are you asleep?
Do you... aren't you happy
with your mother?
It's all right.
Is it? You've changed
so much lately.
Go to sleep, Mommy.
If anything's wrong,
you have to tell me.
You're all I've got left.
Tomorrow, I'll buy you a radio.
I've found a real wireless.
Isn't that what you wanted?
Sorry I'm late.
Let's go!
Is that all for today?
The rest isn't edited yet.
I never knew you used to be
such a bumpkin!
Not really.
I've exaggerated a lot.
Thanks. Let me know when
I can see the rest.
It was good!
- Are you leaving now?
- I'll call you.
See you soon!
I need to ask you about the eighth reel,
the sequence with the mother.
We'll look at it later.
At every level, I feel I'm blocked.
By taking my childhood as
the subject for this film...
I get the feeling I'm exploiting it.
It's the same with the landscape.
The more I describe it,
the more vague it gets.
When you start to objectify yourself
and your background...
you turn them into a cheap spectacle.
But that is the way to liberate oneself
from childhood and its setting.
Basically, the whole past
is just fiction.
But if I don't try to express it,
it remains the core of my being.
Don't you think our lives are built upon
the supports of our first experience?
Quite the reverse!
It's more like a millstone
we drag around.
If one isn't freed from
one's own memory...
then one isn't really free.
"The money we lose" says Borges, "and
the money we find five days later...
"are not entirely the same"
How can we accept it
continued to exist...
both yesterday and the day before?
For a long time now, I've
been interested in dreams.
My own dreams are a reality
to me who dreams them.
My dream achievements are a reality
to me who dreams them.
Therefore, if we want to
preserve our dreams...
we should never go back to sleep.
All the same...
if you can't control your dreams,
or edit your memories...
you're still not a true creator.
By the way, I've got a problem for you.
If you go back to the past in a time-machine
and kill your great-grandmother...
would there still be your present self?
If you go back to the past in a time-machine
and kill your great-grandmother...
would there still be your present self?
I've tried to find the answer.
The one who killed my great-grandmother
is my present self.
It's just that if she is killed,
my grandmother, mother, even me
cannot possibly exist.
But who then...
I had to rethink the rest of the editing
for the film we're shooting.
Outside of my door I run into a boy
who is waiting for me.
He is myself from 20 years ago.
It's frightening to face
this envoy from my childhood.
The countryside wasn't nearly
as beautiful as I've shown it.
My mother tried to keep me
locked in the house...
and I didn't find the woman next door
all that attractive.
My own childhood
is my own pack of lies!
When the crow's call rises in the night...
next morning, inexorably...
someone has to die.
Only today...
a man of 60 died...
upon the virgin body...
of the girl he embraced.
And in the gaping red hole...
of his mouth...
beneath the nicotine...
his gold teeth shine.
From the underpants...
he'd tossed in the corner...
the girl makes giant butterflies.
They fly away.
No. The village people
wouldn't want a bastard around.
There's a mark on her skin.
It must be a curse!
- The mark of the dog!
- No, it's dirt!
Then it should come off.
No. You see, sure it's a mark!
We'll have a misfortune,
and it's your fault.
- We must get rid of it!
- Do it one way or another!
Shut up!
Kill it!
As for the elopement,
I'd plainly embellished it.
- Where are you going?
- To the lavatory.
Dressed like that?
I know what it is.
You're going to leave me!
Shin-chan, don't go!
Don't leave me all alone!
Let go of me!
I've made up my mind!
You can have anything you want...
a complete baseball outfit...
Just let me go!
If you're going to leave,
you'd better kill me first!
Don't go!
He's gone!
Are you there?
I still had my mother's hair...
clutched in the palm of my hand.
- Where are you going?
- That way.
Have you seen a woman
with a lot of luggage?
Oh, you mean the young bride?
- Yes.
- She went towards the mountain.
The Scary Mountain?!
No! I will not kill my baby!
You're here!
What are you doing?
The train will be leaving soon.
You can ride the train on your own.
But you promised!
What did I promise?
You promised you'd come with me!
Did you lie to me?!
Who is this man?
He is my lover.
For me, he is the dearest
of all people.
What about me?
You're still a child.
When you grow up
you'll see what I mean.
- Come over here!
- Why should I?
Come, sit down!
Try this!
How can we talk while you're standing?
Come, sit down!
It was a long long war.
My family was very poor.
After Daddy was called up, there was
no one left to work the land.
My mother had a stroke...
and the field went to seed.
There were weeds everywhere...
and not a grain of rice in the house.
We had to steal sometimes
just to get some food.
Then someone wanted to buy the field,
but Mom wouldn't even consider it.
And every day the creditor
would come, in his black coat...
and try to talk us into selling it.
It was driving Mom insane.
She wouldn't give up the field
before her husband was back home.
And then...
it was Mother's turn to die.
The field was sold.
I had to go far away
to live with a relative.
One winter night...
I went out to bury my mother's
red comb in the fields.
That night...
the red comb was singing:
"Give me back the field. Give it back!
"Give me back the happy days...
"of my girlhood...
"and the sad, sad face of my youth."
Soon after, the war ended.
But not my suffering.
In the ruins of the deserted town,
I had to become...
a woman of easy virtue.
Come back, Mom, and give birth
to me a second time.
Without you, I can never change.
In my dreams, I often returned
to the village.
And then...
each time, I'd plough up the soil.
Red combs would spring up, everywhere.
In every field in the village,
my mother's red combs...
stained with blood and hatred...
would appear by tens and hundreds.
And all the combs would shout at me:
"I should have never been
born a woman...
"never have become a mother."
I have no idea how to continue.
I should go back
and face my childhood.
That won't do! It's the baby
we must get rid of!
Or else there will be misfortune!
Kill it! Kill the cursed baby!
When I met this man,
it was like a ray of hope.
I was convinced that nothing
could go wrong again.
But that didn't last long.
Because he was a communist,
a wanted man.
One evening a few people came
and took him away.
And after that I had
no more news of him.
One year later, I took
someone's advice...
and married a rich local landowner.
It was like accepting
the life of a prisoner.
But we met again in the end!
Yes, you're right!
We've finally met again!
What will you do now?
We'll go far away.
Do you want to come with us?
Me?
Yes. It doesn't make a difference
whether it's two or three people.
Where would we go?
To a really good place.
With a big sunny house,
a garden full of flowers,
the sound of piano playing,
with the merriment of a nursery,
and a nice big bath!
No one will trouble us there!
Why don't you run and get us...
a bottle of sake?
- Sake?
- Yes, sake!
We'll drink it and then we can go.
It's a fine place,
you'll see!
Run!
- Where are you going?
- To buy some sake.
I'll go with you.
I wanted to have a look at it
together with myself from 20 years ago.
To rebuild the past,
I needed his complicity.
This must be the night
when the fingerprints I've left...
on my Father's gravestone
mournfully dissolve.
I point north with a burning cigarette.
The sky is dark,
there is no longing for my home.
Tell me, my sisters...
what can my child see...
in the distant land...
to which she's gone?
All alone, I gave birth...
to a beautiful child.
Her life did not last...
longer than a new moon.
With the Nightingale...
and the Silver Ram...
you must set off without me.
My child, my daughter!
Redder than blood...
the flower in your hand.
I want to see you again!
To talk to you a while...
of the dolls we dress up...
in the finest clothes...
for the Girls' Day...
on the first day of spring.
With the Nightingale
and the Silver Ram...
you must set off without me.
My child, my daughter!
She's taken it off again!
The boss will be angry!
When she takes off her costume...
she's just an ordinary woman.
Honey! Honey!
Where is he?
I've knitted a sweater for him.
Her honey is fooling around.
She's much too good for him!
She's murdered it!
The cursed child.
Did she trample it to death, drown it?
Or bury it alive?
Anyway, she's killed it!
The danger has passed.
What's happened to the mother?
She's completely vanished.
Once she'd killed her baby,
she took off herself.
She's vanished completely,
the rotten child-murderer!
I could go far away
together with the circus.
Actually, I've never seen a circus.
But I have!
I could see everything
that was going on under the big top.
What exactly did the circus
represent for me?
It was like the shock I had
when I opened the back...
of my very first watch.
The carnival sounds of
the ticking wheels:
A sleight of hand...
of sixty magicians!
But once I put it back in its case,
the whole masquerade disappeared.
Letter for you!
- For me?
- Yes.
But how could it be delivered
to this place?!
The show is starting.
Everybody get onstage!
Hey!
I am leaving for vacation.
May I introduce my new wife?
- Nice to meet you!
- Isn't she cute?!
You'll also meet a good man,
he'll pump you up every day.
Sure!
Look, it has totally collapsed!
Should I pump it up a bit
before I leave?
We don't have time for that, honey!
Let's go!
Why are you always smiling?
Don't you ever get cross?
He's walked out on you.
I'm not worried.
He'll be back one day.
Why don't you lose your temper?
Show some more temper,
you fat moron!
Your husband's unfaithful!
You've gotta grab a knife
and go after him!
When people keep calm like this,
it really makes me mad!
This attitude you're putting up
is too good to be true!
Never gets jealous!
Come on, get cross!
Please get angry!
Come on!
Lose your temper!
She's dead.
She's dead.
Don't worry!
I won't die so easily!
My clock is up for sale,
but no one is willing to buy it.
I carry it in my arms
across a somber plain.
The pilgrim my father's become upon high.
The harlot my mother is here below.
A bloody procession of so many poppies...
born one after the other in the family hell...
on the slopes of the Scary Mountain...
strewn with old clocks.
I'm nothing but an ungrateful son.
A very ungrateful son.
Mother, why don't you hurry up and die?
Mother, why don't you hurry up and die?
Sing, all you birds of Heaven and Hell,
and put my mother to sleep without end.
Shin-chan!
It's your turn.
Yes, I know.
I can't think of another move.
You've got to move your King.
You'll take my Bishop.
No, to the left.
No, this is right.
Your right is my left.
Oh, that way!
When I grow up,
I want to be a sailor.
It's too late.
I took a Liberal Arts degree.
But couldn't I do something different?
No way!
It's your turn.
Oh! You've got a watch!
Yes, I bought it five years ago.
So, in five years' time...
No, there are 20 years between us,
not 10.
By the way,
what happened to the Turgenev novel
that I stole when I was sixteen?
How should I know?
I'm only fifteen now!
That's right.
And I won't steal anything,
not next year, not ever.
I know everything about you,
but you know nothing about me.
Then why don't you tell me:
When will I ride a train?
When will I sleep with a woman?
I'm going to take your Knight.
- Wait a minute!
- I can't!
If I wait, you'll catch up with me.
You can't make time stand still.
When I was a kid, I caught a firefly.
I wanted to show it to Mommy.
From the doorway,
I heard a strange noise.
Through the half-open door,
I saw Mommy...
in the arms of a strange man...
half undressed, pressing against him.
I felt sick.
I no longer wanted
to show her my firefly.
I hid it in a drawer.
Later that night, there was a fire...
and the house burned down.
They said it was the wiring.
Actually, it was because of the firefly
that I'd put in the drawer.
You're lying!
How can you tell?
We've never had a fire.
You're lying, aren't you?
The past can always be re-arranged.
Did you see the map of Japan?
There's one bit that looks like an axe.
Another looks like a human head.
I was born in the head...
before the axe struck.
I ran away three times
and was caught three times.
My favorite pigeon had
a fatal run-in with a cloud.
I didn't get married, and didn't serve
in the army. I've become a singer.
I'll go on a triumphal concert
tour of my village.
I'll sing in charity concerts
to aid the needy children.
I'll become an idol.
I'll be famous,
get my name in the papers.
The curtain rises
and I start at it!
I'm tired of saying "l".
We're all like flowers.
We soon fade.
You in the stalls...
one of these days you'll croak too!
How's Mommy?
Just the same. She's still nagging.
You still live with her?
Yes. When I left home,
she moved with me.
I wouldn't want it.
Well, that's the way it is.
I'll manage it somehow.
I'll go off on my own.
She'll follow you everywhere.
Check!
You were over twenty when you
bought your first watch.
If I buy one tomorrow,
I'll no longer be you.
No one's memory is perfect.
You'll find the things I've lost.
That's called "growing up".
But I'll never be able to find
the things you lose.
Too much time has passed.
It's too late.
To be honest, I have thought
of leaving Mother.
So have I.
I've often thought about it.
I've even thought of killing her.
Really? When?
All the time, now as well.
Killing her?
How could you?!
Of course, I am not talking
about the present Mom,
but about the one from
20 years ago...
If Mom were dead, that
would change everything.
You'd no longer exist.
That's what I want to find out...
...whether it's true I wouldn't exist
if I'd killed my mother in the past.
I'm going to prove it to you.
If Mom were dead,
you'd no longer be me.
You'd be someone else.
To catch your first train,
you need your mother's corpse.
Come on, run to the house
and get a rope and a sickle.
What for?
Just do as I say.
You'll kill her?!
But I love Mommy!
Then you should do it all the more.
To string her up and knock her out?!
Yes, I want to see it
with my own eyes.
Sometimes we remember things
that have not really happened.
It's you!
Yes, it's me.
I didn't recognize you!
In the old days,
I used to wear a kimono.
I've cut my hair too.
They say you killed your baby.
That's right, I've drowned it.
And then you disappeared?
- I went to Tokyo.
- To Tokyo?
Yes, I've been living there.
Where are you going?
I've gotta pick something up.
- Stay for a bit!
- I'm in a hurry...
Just for a bit.
It's been so long since I left the village.
There are so many things I'd like to know...
Like what?
How's everybody been keeping?
Do you think I've changed?
Yeah.
In what way?
I don't know how to say it...
You're so beautiful today!
Really?
It's so good you're saying it!
Why are you running away?
Come here! Stay with me!
What do they do in the next world,
all the lost children?
The ones who are abandoned.
The ones who are killed.
Their eyes forever filled with tears.
They haul their heavy stones.
What do they do in the next world...
with their bleeding hands...
beside the dried-up river?
Ceaselessly,
they build a tower which rises up...
like a prayer into the skies.
"A stone for my father,
"a stone for my mother,
"another for my country,
"and who's the next one for?"
I can never go home again.
Would you come to Tokyo with me?
I've fallen asleep waiting
for my younger self to show up.
I have been betrayed by
my own self from 20 years ago.
Now I'll have to kill Mother
on my own.
With a rope and a sickle,
it won't be an easy thing to do.
I have to spit my mother out
like tasteless bile!
Mommy!
Shin-chan!
What took you so long?
Where have you been?
Weren't you cold?
Come in!
Did you wipe your feet?
Sit down!
Are you hungry?
I'll get you something to eat.
There could be other ways
of telling all this.
My mother and I are merely characters
that I've invented.
Because it's only a film.
Yet I couldn't make my own self
from inside the movie...
kill my mother from inside the movie.
Who am I then?
Date of birth:
December 10, 1935
Present location:
Tokyo, the Shinjuku district,
upon the Scary Mountain.
Written and directed by
Shuji TERAYAMA
Based on his volume of poems
"DEN'EN NI SHISU"
Photography
Tatsuo SUZUKI
Music
J.A. SEAZER
Production Design
Kiyoshi AWAZU
Art Direction
Kozuichi HANAWA
Make-Up
Koji TAKEMURA
Sound Effects
Katsuhide KIMURA
Editing
Sachiko YAMAJI
Lighting
Osamu TONOOKA
Script
Heraiku MORISAKI
Stills Photography
Shinobu SAKI
Assistant Director
Atsushi KUNIGAMI & Susumu ONO
Production Manager
Ichiro HAGIWARA
Set Director
Michi TANAKA
Project Consultant
Kinshiro KUZUI
Rice Street, Buddha Street.
But hey, swallow bird, isn't there a street
where they would buy old mothers?
My little brother and the bird:
Went off to buy a new family altar
and vanished without a trace.
Are you ready?
Not yet!
Are you ready?
Ready!
In the midst of a young girl's loose hair:
The word "funeral" spelled
in the language of flowers.
As I go to bury
my dead mother's red comb,
there's only wind howling over
the Scary Mountain.
PASTORAL:
To die in the country
This clock has been ringing
for three days without a pause.
It must be very old...
No! It always rings so nicely!
Can you make it stop?
You're going to break it!
Can you be more careful?
What are you doing?
Can I take it home for repair?
It will only take a few days.
No, that won't do!
It would bring us bad luck,
if the clock is taken off the wall.
Then, I don't think
I can repair it.
You're staring at my wife again!
I'm sorry,
I am very sorry.
Shin-chan, it's you!
Are you back?
She must be the daughter of that...
No, the daughter of...
More likely the grand-daughter of...
But she looks like the niece of...
And she's pregnant!
She's going to give birth to a bastard.
It's just a little discomfort.
As it's the Day of the Dog...
you ought to wear a red
and white maternity corset.
I'm sorry to cause so much trouble.
Whatever you do, don't touch a horse.
A mare takes twelve months to bear a foal.
And don't say the word "horse" either...
or you'll have a difficult labor.
Mommy! The woman next door
is really attractive.
Oh, is she?
I saw her taking a nap yesterday.
She's just my type!
Mommy!
I want to get circumcised.
What?
Circumcised.
Who told you about that?
Nobody. I read it in one
of your magazines.
You mustn't read those!
Just read the comic books
I buy for you.
They say it keeps you from growing up,
and that it's not clean.
I should get rid of it at once.
What will I look like
if you keep on with all this nonsense?
When will I start getting hair?
My best friend's got some already.
Shin-chan!
You should listen to what I tell you,
or else it will make me really angry.
Don't you think about
all this nonsense!
Better think about school.
You're still a child.
Where are you going
at this time of the night?
To the Scary Mountain.
- What's there?
- I want to see Father.
Whenever I scold him,
he runs off to tell his father.
When did it become like this?
His father wouldn't confide
in an oracle.
Father!
Father, darling!
It's me, your wife.
The needles have grown rusty
in the needle box,
yet the rift between me and my mother
remains un-stitched.
She rubs and polishes the family altar,
her only piece of dowry,
until it shines to reflect
her artificial eyeball.
An altar!
Who'd like an altar?
Would you care for an altar?
In the falling twilight...
a bell tolls afar.
Where have they buried...
my dead father's flute?
I'd like to speak to someone
who died in 1943.
You who were born on September 4, 1910
and departed on August 3, 1943...
from the Kingdom of Dead
wherein you are resting...
come forth onto this world of ours.
I am your father.
I am your father.
You all right, Dad?
It's good of you to come.
Thank you for calling me.
I haven't brought you anything.
I've just come to talk.
In the world where I'm living,
presents are of little use.
I can no longer appear before you, but
I can speak to you through an oracle.
Would you like to know
what's going on at home?
If you say your prayers,
my spirit will always guard you.
I know everything that's going on at home.
I have nothing to ask.
Dad...
What?
It's Mom.
She's always nagging.
Fate has separated us.
We must resign ourselves to that.
You must obey your mother.
I won't!
In spring,
I will run away from home.
Are you asleep?
What's the matter?
Nothing. I've just left a pressed
flower under your bed.
I'm sorry!
It's so gorgeous!
Loony soldier! Loony soldier!
Granny, I want to buy a rattle.
I'll put the money here.
It's spring already,
and it hasn't gotten any better at all.
Can't you make your wife
take care of her duties?!
She doesn't even know
how to keep accounts.
I've heard it before, Mother.
Nor how to do laundry!
When she washes your underwear, I have
to do it again when she isn't looking.
That's the only reason why it's clean!
She can't even boil an egg!
She's never heard of weeding!
I've spent enough money
to buy her for you.
She's gotta be working
to get my money's worth.
Look!
There's a circus!
Come on, one-two-three!
One-two-three!
You idiot, can you watch
what you're doing?!
No slacking down!
Pull yourself together!
Not like this!
No-no-no!
Hey!
Can you pump me up?
Come on, pump me up!
All right.
Like this.
How is it?
All right?
Yeah, it's good.
You moron, you're doing it again!
I shouldn't leave it here.
Hey you, get outta here!
Come back on Sunday, OK?
On Sunday!
Or the bogeyman will get you!
What the hell!
The flame-like flowers of amaryllis
cast into rapid waters:
What sacrifice does a red flower make?
I shall cut off my eyelids
to see better.
The razor blade reflects the horizon.
Hey! You!
Come on in!
- Me?
- Yes, you.
- How old are you?
- Fifteen.
You're a real man then!
There is a pump over there.
Could you please bring it over?
You connect it in here...
and start pumping as hard as you can.
Like this?
No. Much harder!
Wait a bit...
No. That's hopeless.
The air isn't coming in.
Oh, you've got a watch!
Is it a toy one?
It's a real watch.
It's ticking!
In the circus, everyone has a watch.
Really?
But then you must argue a lot!
Why?
Because you wouldn't know
whose watch to trust.
Everybody's got a watch,
and they all travel together...
- Will you, Mommy?
- No!
- Please?
- No, there's no way.
It doesn't have to cost much.
We could find one on sale.
The time is meant to be kept
at home, inside a big clock.
Why would you put it inside
a watch and carry it around?
It makes no sense!
All we have is each other,
we're one family.
Why would you need your own watch?
Don't we have a clock already?
But isn't it broken?
No, it's totally alright!
It's our family clock!
Cry, baby bird,
and make my mother rest asleep...
before she is cast away
in the mountains.
The little devil playing hide-and-seek
has grown up.
Who is it that the festive villagers
keep looking for?
You haven't heard?
A clerk from the Town Hall's disappeared...
with the official register
of everyone in the village!
He ran off with the records? When?
This morning.
Then they've all lost their identities!
What a disaster!
Now through a tunnel.
Now it's chugging uphill.
You're very good at it.
I've never actually been
on a train. Have you?
Yes. That's how I came here.
Where did you come from?
That's my secret!
Tell me...
Would you like to go on a train someday?
Of course, how would I?
Would you like to run away with me?
But it's impossible!
Aren't you already married?
You belong to such an important family!
That doesn't matter.
I can't stand them.
I've always wanted to run away.
After all,
they forced me to come here.
Do you want me
to leave by train with you?
Yes, that's right. Will you help me?
I'll do anything you say.
I want to elope.
"Elope: To run away with a lover...
against a disapproval of the family."
Wow, it's stopped!
Do you like it?
I'm the best at it!
Like this!
Does it feel good?
After all,
we're husband and wife.
There is nothing
to be embarrassed of.
Like this?
Is it good?
It's swelling!
That's the trick!
Too bad! I've thrown it away.
You'll never be pumped up again!
Why did you do that?
Your hubby gets on my nerves.
Little jerk!
You're jealous, aren't you?
Shut your face, you big lump!
A guy like me can have all
the women he wants.
You. Come here!
I don't believe you.
You're kidding.
You idiot, it's no joke!
Without that padding.
You're no use to anyone!
They'll say anything at all.
Underneath,
he's still in love with me.
It's over. I've got a daughter.
Aren't you pretty?
I'm going to show you to everybody!
Right?
So cute!
Look!
Careful!
I've never seen such a pretty baby!
Let me hold him.
- He'll make a fine soldier.
- No, it's a girl!
Concentrate on what you're doing!
What's that noise?
It must be the stray dog.
Is it?
It's coming from your room.
The one that was knocking
against the shutters yesterday.
Shin-chan!
Are you asleep?
Do you... aren't you happy
with your mother?
It's all right.
Is it? You've changed
so much lately.
Go to sleep, Mommy.
If anything's wrong,
you have to tell me.
You're all I've got left.
Tomorrow, I'll buy you a radio.
I've found a real wireless.
Isn't that what you wanted?
Sorry I'm late.
Let's go!
Is that all for today?
The rest isn't edited yet.
I never knew you used to be
such a bumpkin!
Not really.
I've exaggerated a lot.
Thanks. Let me know when
I can see the rest.
It was good!
- Are you leaving now?
- I'll call you.
See you soon!
I need to ask you about the eighth reel,
the sequence with the mother.
We'll look at it later.
At every level, I feel I'm blocked.
By taking my childhood as
the subject for this film...
I get the feeling I'm exploiting it.
It's the same with the landscape.
The more I describe it,
the more vague it gets.
When you start to objectify yourself
and your background...
you turn them into a cheap spectacle.
But that is the way to liberate oneself
from childhood and its setting.
Basically, the whole past
is just fiction.
But if I don't try to express it,
it remains the core of my being.
Don't you think our lives are built upon
the supports of our first experience?
Quite the reverse!
It's more like a millstone
we drag around.
If one isn't freed from
one's own memory...
then one isn't really free.
"The money we lose" says Borges, "and
the money we find five days later...
"are not entirely the same"
How can we accept it
continued to exist...
both yesterday and the day before?
For a long time now, I've
been interested in dreams.
My own dreams are a reality
to me who dreams them.
My dream achievements are a reality
to me who dreams them.
Therefore, if we want to
preserve our dreams...
we should never go back to sleep.
All the same...
if you can't control your dreams,
or edit your memories...
you're still not a true creator.
By the way, I've got a problem for you.
If you go back to the past in a time-machine
and kill your great-grandmother...
would there still be your present self?
If you go back to the past in a time-machine
and kill your great-grandmother...
would there still be your present self?
I've tried to find the answer.
The one who killed my great-grandmother
is my present self.
It's just that if she is killed,
my grandmother, mother, even me
cannot possibly exist.
But who then...
I had to rethink the rest of the editing
for the film we're shooting.
Outside of my door I run into a boy
who is waiting for me.
He is myself from 20 years ago.
It's frightening to face
this envoy from my childhood.
The countryside wasn't nearly
as beautiful as I've shown it.
My mother tried to keep me
locked in the house...
and I didn't find the woman next door
all that attractive.
My own childhood
is my own pack of lies!
When the crow's call rises in the night...
next morning, inexorably...
someone has to die.
Only today...
a man of 60 died...
upon the virgin body...
of the girl he embraced.
And in the gaping red hole...
of his mouth...
beneath the nicotine...
his gold teeth shine.
From the underpants...
he'd tossed in the corner...
the girl makes giant butterflies.
They fly away.
No. The village people
wouldn't want a bastard around.
There's a mark on her skin.
It must be a curse!
- The mark of the dog!
- No, it's dirt!
Then it should come off.
No. You see, sure it's a mark!
We'll have a misfortune,
and it's your fault.
- We must get rid of it!
- Do it one way or another!
Shut up!
Kill it!
As for the elopement,
I'd plainly embellished it.
- Where are you going?
- To the lavatory.
Dressed like that?
I know what it is.
You're going to leave me!
Shin-chan, don't go!
Don't leave me all alone!
Let go of me!
I've made up my mind!
You can have anything you want...
a complete baseball outfit...
Just let me go!
If you're going to leave,
you'd better kill me first!
Don't go!
He's gone!
Are you there?
I still had my mother's hair...
clutched in the palm of my hand.
- Where are you going?
- That way.
Have you seen a woman
with a lot of luggage?
Oh, you mean the young bride?
- Yes.
- She went towards the mountain.
The Scary Mountain?!
No! I will not kill my baby!
You're here!
What are you doing?
The train will be leaving soon.
You can ride the train on your own.
But you promised!
What did I promise?
You promised you'd come with me!
Did you lie to me?!
Who is this man?
He is my lover.
For me, he is the dearest
of all people.
What about me?
You're still a child.
When you grow up
you'll see what I mean.
- Come over here!
- Why should I?
Come, sit down!
Try this!
How can we talk while you're standing?
Come, sit down!
It was a long long war.
My family was very poor.
After Daddy was called up, there was
no one left to work the land.
My mother had a stroke...
and the field went to seed.
There were weeds everywhere...
and not a grain of rice in the house.
We had to steal sometimes
just to get some food.
Then someone wanted to buy the field,
but Mom wouldn't even consider it.
And every day the creditor
would come, in his black coat...
and try to talk us into selling it.
It was driving Mom insane.
She wouldn't give up the field
before her husband was back home.
And then...
it was Mother's turn to die.
The field was sold.
I had to go far away
to live with a relative.
One winter night...
I went out to bury my mother's
red comb in the fields.
That night...
the red comb was singing:
"Give me back the field. Give it back!
"Give me back the happy days...
"of my girlhood...
"and the sad, sad face of my youth."
Soon after, the war ended.
But not my suffering.
In the ruins of the deserted town,
I had to become...
a woman of easy virtue.
Come back, Mom, and give birth
to me a second time.
Without you, I can never change.
In my dreams, I often returned
to the village.
And then...
each time, I'd plough up the soil.
Red combs would spring up, everywhere.
In every field in the village,
my mother's red combs...
stained with blood and hatred...
would appear by tens and hundreds.
And all the combs would shout at me:
"I should have never been
born a woman...
"never have become a mother."
I have no idea how to continue.
I should go back
and face my childhood.
That won't do! It's the baby
we must get rid of!
Or else there will be misfortune!
Kill it! Kill the cursed baby!
When I met this man,
it was like a ray of hope.
I was convinced that nothing
could go wrong again.
But that didn't last long.
Because he was a communist,
a wanted man.
One evening a few people came
and took him away.
And after that I had
no more news of him.
One year later, I took
someone's advice...
and married a rich local landowner.
It was like accepting
the life of a prisoner.
But we met again in the end!
Yes, you're right!
We've finally met again!
What will you do now?
We'll go far away.
Do you want to come with us?
Me?
Yes. It doesn't make a difference
whether it's two or three people.
Where would we go?
To a really good place.
With a big sunny house,
a garden full of flowers,
the sound of piano playing,
with the merriment of a nursery,
and a nice big bath!
No one will trouble us there!
Why don't you run and get us...
a bottle of sake?
- Sake?
- Yes, sake!
We'll drink it and then we can go.
It's a fine place,
you'll see!
Run!
- Where are you going?
- To buy some sake.
I'll go with you.
I wanted to have a look at it
together with myself from 20 years ago.
To rebuild the past,
I needed his complicity.
This must be the night
when the fingerprints I've left...
on my Father's gravestone
mournfully dissolve.
I point north with a burning cigarette.
The sky is dark,
there is no longing for my home.
Tell me, my sisters...
what can my child see...
in the distant land...
to which she's gone?
All alone, I gave birth...
to a beautiful child.
Her life did not last...
longer than a new moon.
With the Nightingale...
and the Silver Ram...
you must set off without me.
My child, my daughter!
Redder than blood...
the flower in your hand.
I want to see you again!
To talk to you a while...
of the dolls we dress up...
in the finest clothes...
for the Girls' Day...
on the first day of spring.
With the Nightingale
and the Silver Ram...
you must set off without me.
My child, my daughter!
She's taken it off again!
The boss will be angry!
When she takes off her costume...
she's just an ordinary woman.
Honey! Honey!
Where is he?
I've knitted a sweater for him.
Her honey is fooling around.
She's much too good for him!
She's murdered it!
The cursed child.
Did she trample it to death, drown it?
Or bury it alive?
Anyway, she's killed it!
The danger has passed.
What's happened to the mother?
She's completely vanished.
Once she'd killed her baby,
she took off herself.
She's vanished completely,
the rotten child-murderer!
I could go far away
together with the circus.
Actually, I've never seen a circus.
But I have!
I could see everything
that was going on under the big top.
What exactly did the circus
represent for me?
It was like the shock I had
when I opened the back...
of my very first watch.
The carnival sounds of
the ticking wheels:
A sleight of hand...
of sixty magicians!
But once I put it back in its case,
the whole masquerade disappeared.
Letter for you!
- For me?
- Yes.
But how could it be delivered
to this place?!
The show is starting.
Everybody get onstage!
Hey!
I am leaving for vacation.
May I introduce my new wife?
- Nice to meet you!
- Isn't she cute?!
You'll also meet a good man,
he'll pump you up every day.
Sure!
Look, it has totally collapsed!
Should I pump it up a bit
before I leave?
We don't have time for that, honey!
Let's go!
Why are you always smiling?
Don't you ever get cross?
He's walked out on you.
I'm not worried.
He'll be back one day.
Why don't you lose your temper?
Show some more temper,
you fat moron!
Your husband's unfaithful!
You've gotta grab a knife
and go after him!
When people keep calm like this,
it really makes me mad!
This attitude you're putting up
is too good to be true!
Never gets jealous!
Come on, get cross!
Please get angry!
Come on!
Lose your temper!
She's dead.
She's dead.
Don't worry!
I won't die so easily!
My clock is up for sale,
but no one is willing to buy it.
I carry it in my arms
across a somber plain.
The pilgrim my father's become upon high.
The harlot my mother is here below.
A bloody procession of so many poppies...
born one after the other in the family hell...
on the slopes of the Scary Mountain...
strewn with old clocks.
I'm nothing but an ungrateful son.
A very ungrateful son.
Mother, why don't you hurry up and die?
Mother, why don't you hurry up and die?
Sing, all you birds of Heaven and Hell,
and put my mother to sleep without end.
Shin-chan!
It's your turn.
Yes, I know.
I can't think of another move.
You've got to move your King.
You'll take my Bishop.
No, to the left.
No, this is right.
Your right is my left.
Oh, that way!
When I grow up,
I want to be a sailor.
It's too late.
I took a Liberal Arts degree.
But couldn't I do something different?
No way!
It's your turn.
Oh! You've got a watch!
Yes, I bought it five years ago.
So, in five years' time...
No, there are 20 years between us,
not 10.
By the way,
what happened to the Turgenev novel
that I stole when I was sixteen?
How should I know?
I'm only fifteen now!
That's right.
And I won't steal anything,
not next year, not ever.
I know everything about you,
but you know nothing about me.
Then why don't you tell me:
When will I ride a train?
When will I sleep with a woman?
I'm going to take your Knight.
- Wait a minute!
- I can't!
If I wait, you'll catch up with me.
You can't make time stand still.
When I was a kid, I caught a firefly.
I wanted to show it to Mommy.
From the doorway,
I heard a strange noise.
Through the half-open door,
I saw Mommy...
in the arms of a strange man...
half undressed, pressing against him.
I felt sick.
I no longer wanted
to show her my firefly.
I hid it in a drawer.
Later that night, there was a fire...
and the house burned down.
They said it was the wiring.
Actually, it was because of the firefly
that I'd put in the drawer.
You're lying!
How can you tell?
We've never had a fire.
You're lying, aren't you?
The past can always be re-arranged.
Did you see the map of Japan?
There's one bit that looks like an axe.
Another looks like a human head.
I was born in the head...
before the axe struck.
I ran away three times
and was caught three times.
My favorite pigeon had
a fatal run-in with a cloud.
I didn't get married, and didn't serve
in the army. I've become a singer.
I'll go on a triumphal concert
tour of my village.
I'll sing in charity concerts
to aid the needy children.
I'll become an idol.
I'll be famous,
get my name in the papers.
The curtain rises
and I start at it!
I'm tired of saying "l".
We're all like flowers.
We soon fade.
You in the stalls...
one of these days you'll croak too!
How's Mommy?
Just the same. She's still nagging.
You still live with her?
Yes. When I left home,
she moved with me.
I wouldn't want it.
Well, that's the way it is.
I'll manage it somehow.
I'll go off on my own.
She'll follow you everywhere.
Check!
You were over twenty when you
bought your first watch.
If I buy one tomorrow,
I'll no longer be you.
No one's memory is perfect.
You'll find the things I've lost.
That's called "growing up".
But I'll never be able to find
the things you lose.
Too much time has passed.
It's too late.
To be honest, I have thought
of leaving Mother.
So have I.
I've often thought about it.
I've even thought of killing her.
Really? When?
All the time, now as well.
Killing her?
How could you?!
Of course, I am not talking
about the present Mom,
but about the one from
20 years ago...
If Mom were dead, that
would change everything.
You'd no longer exist.
That's what I want to find out...
...whether it's true I wouldn't exist
if I'd killed my mother in the past.
I'm going to prove it to you.
If Mom were dead,
you'd no longer be me.
You'd be someone else.
To catch your first train,
you need your mother's corpse.
Come on, run to the house
and get a rope and a sickle.
What for?
Just do as I say.
You'll kill her?!
But I love Mommy!
Then you should do it all the more.
To string her up and knock her out?!
Yes, I want to see it
with my own eyes.
Sometimes we remember things
that have not really happened.
It's you!
Yes, it's me.
I didn't recognize you!
In the old days,
I used to wear a kimono.
I've cut my hair too.
They say you killed your baby.
That's right, I've drowned it.
And then you disappeared?
- I went to Tokyo.
- To Tokyo?
Yes, I've been living there.
Where are you going?
I've gotta pick something up.
- Stay for a bit!
- I'm in a hurry...
Just for a bit.
It's been so long since I left the village.
There are so many things I'd like to know...
Like what?
How's everybody been keeping?
Do you think I've changed?
Yeah.
In what way?
I don't know how to say it...
You're so beautiful today!
Really?
It's so good you're saying it!
Why are you running away?
Come here! Stay with me!
What do they do in the next world,
all the lost children?
The ones who are abandoned.
The ones who are killed.
Their eyes forever filled with tears.
They haul their heavy stones.
What do they do in the next world...
with their bleeding hands...
beside the dried-up river?
Ceaselessly,
they build a tower which rises up...
like a prayer into the skies.
"A stone for my father,
"a stone for my mother,
"another for my country,
"and who's the next one for?"
I can never go home again.
Would you come to Tokyo with me?
I've fallen asleep waiting
for my younger self to show up.
I have been betrayed by
my own self from 20 years ago.
Now I'll have to kill Mother
on my own.
With a rope and a sickle,
it won't be an easy thing to do.
I have to spit my mother out
like tasteless bile!
Mommy!
Shin-chan!
What took you so long?
Where have you been?
Weren't you cold?
Come in!
Did you wipe your feet?
Sit down!
Are you hungry?
I'll get you something to eat.
There could be other ways
of telling all this.
My mother and I are merely characters
that I've invented.
Because it's only a film.
Yet I couldn't make my own self
from inside the movie...
kill my mother from inside the movie.
Who am I then?
Date of birth:
December 10, 1935
Present location:
Tokyo, the Shinjuku district,
upon the Scary Mountain.
Written and directed by
Shuji TERAYAMA
Based on his volume of poems
"DEN'EN NI SHISU"
Photography
Tatsuo SUZUKI
Music
J.A. SEAZER
Production Design
Kiyoshi AWAZU
Art Direction
Kozuichi HANAWA
Make-Up
Koji TAKEMURA
Sound Effects
Katsuhide KIMURA
Editing
Sachiko YAMAJI
Lighting
Osamu TONOOKA
Script
Heraiku MORISAKI
Stills Photography
Shinobu SAKI
Assistant Director
Atsushi KUNIGAMI & Susumu ONO
Production Manager
Ichiro HAGIWARA
Set Director
Michi TANAKA
Project Consultant
Kinshiro KUZUI