10th Anniversary A Monkey Town Productions Film
A Masahiro Kobayashi Film
The Rebirth
Why did your daughter commit the crime?
I don't know.
Is a mother...
supposed to know everything about her daughter's feelings?
How can I know what she is thinking?
She's already a middle school student.
She's an adult.
Didn't you buy herthe computer?
Or did she buy it herself?
She said everyone had one.
The year she went to middle school,
I gave it to her for her birthday in June.
Even then she said it was too late.
Everyone else had their own computer from elementary school.
She was embarrassed to be the only one without one.
Did you know she'd made her own homepage?
No.
Did you ever see it?
No.
I'm no good at these things.
I don't know how to use them.
Did you see it afterthe incident?
The police showed me.
What did you think?
Were you shocked when you saw it?
How should I say...
To have been so ignorant of my daughter's thoughts...
"Knife"..."blood"...etc.
All these words she would normally never use.
I'll ask you again.
What caused the crime?
I already told you I don't know!
I don't know!
Some people say the Internet is to blame.
But for what reason I don't know.
I know the Internet fosters conjecture about strangers.
They say that we didn't communicate enough.
That we should have had talked more.
Some say that the nature of the family itself...
is one reason forthese juvenile crimes.
So now it's the parents' fault?
That's one reason.
Granted, we were poor.
We lived in a municipal apartment.
A single-parent family.
But to say, that's why...
We were no different from any otherfamily.
We were just an ordinary mother and daughter.
If you compare us to herfriends...
there wasn't a single difference.
So the warped Japanese society...
is the cause of these crimes.
Your daughter is, of course, the culprit.
But at the same time, she's the victim.
I don't understand such complicated things.
Ljust...
ljust want to apologize to the other child's parents.
I know it can't be fixed with an apology, but...
I want to apologize.
You've quit the newspaper office.
What are you doing now?
Nothing.
I can't sleep.
Just when I think I'm asleep, I immediately wake up.
So ljust get under the covers and stay still.
But...
then I want to go to the toilet.
So...
I get up, go to the toilet...
then I go and sit in the kitchen.
The window overlooks a bridge.
On the other side of the bridge...
is the condo of my daughter's killer's parents.
I made a mistake...
moving to a town built on reclaimed land.
People live in areas of separated income.
The town is nowhere near complete.
That's why quarrels occur between children.
But my wife begged me to live here.
She's a country bumpkin.
I suppose she wanted to live in a fashionable area in Tokyo.
So, morning becomes night... and night...
...becomes morning again.
I don't want to eat anything or drink anything.
Just breathing is painful.
I'd rather be dead.
Maybe I'm possessed by something?
I lost my wife to cancer.
That was a terrible time, too.
It lasted one year.
Battling illness.
The latter half, I stayed with her all the time.
And then she finally died.
Just when I thought I'd escaped from hell, this happens.
When the police called me at work...
I was completely stunned.
They said my daughter had been killed.
Stabbed to death by one of her classmates.
Who'd believe such a thing?
I thought, what the hell is going on?
The police called and said, Could you come quickly?
But I couldn't stand up.
My mind went completely blank.
She was 14, you know. 14 years old.
Why did she have to be killed?
Did you ever hearfrom the other girl's parents?
Letters... and more letters.
Wanting to meet and apologize.
But I threw them all away.
Yeah, I know the parents aren't responsible.
On the contrary, I know they're victims too.
I know it intellectually.
But I can't... ljust can't do it.
I don't want to see theirfaces even.
I know it's tough forthem too, but...
...my daughter was killed, and the media came...
...and the criticism came...
"Why don't I forgive her parents?"
I'm sick of it.
Ljust want to be left alone, ignored.
I want to go to some othertown...
...where nobody will meddle with me.
Some town like that.
If your daughter is released, will you live with her again?
I have no idea right now.
No idea.
I'm too busy thinking about my own problems.
I don't live for my daughter.
Maybe I should go back home?
I'm from Hokkaido.
There's no way I can go back.
What will you do when you leave this town?
Now, ljust want to work.
Without thinking.
Manual labor.
One year later
Hokkaido
Yufutsu, Tomakomai City
I know you.
When my daughter was in her second year at middle school.
I saw you once at the parents association.
I met you again in this town...
as the mother of the girl who killed my daughter.
For me now, life without you is impossible.
But I don't have the capacity to live with you.
In that case, you and I...
I want to meet him and apologize.
To the father of the victim?
I know an apology won't fix anything.
But I want to meet him and apologize!
Can you arrange a meeting?
The culprit's mother wants to meet you.
Of course, she knows an apology won't fix anything.
But she'd like to meet you and apologize.
I won't meet her.
I don't want to see herface even.
Don't you have any intention of forgiving her?
No.
To Nasho and Systaro
You and me met in this town
When we met, it was fate
From that moment Time has stopped
Pitter patter You felt tears in your eyes
Pitter patter You simmered with passion
Only by loving
Can you live
Only by loving
Can people live
The premonition of love Shadowed us
The daily grind is like bliss
When I thought I couldn't go on any more
Pitter patter I felt tears in my eyes
Pitter patter I simmered with passion
Only by loving
Can you live
Only by loving
Can people live
You and I met in this town
When we met, it was fate
From that moment Time has stopped
Pitter patter
You felt tears in your eyes
Pitter patter
You simmered with passion
Only by loving
Can you live
Only by loving
Can people live