Original subtitles

These sounds have been retrieved from Postwar Japan

And the tape remains blank.

August 9, 2000 - 5 minutes to 11:02 a.m.

Reiichi (01) Age 60

55 years after the incident.

August 9, 1945 - 5 minutes to 11:02 a.m.

August 9, 1945 - 3 minutes to 11:02 a.m.

Reiichi, what are you doing here?

What are you waiting for?

You must go to school now.

Do you know what to do if there is an air raid?

Every thing could be destroyed, everyone killed!

Now do as I say and go to school!

I'm going to go and find the other children.

August 9, 1945 - 1 minute to 11:02 a.m.

We're tired... can't we rest?

We're almost there. It'll be time for lunch soon, so please be patient.

8-9-11:02

May 1945 - Reiichi, Age 5

I'm home.

Hello dear.

Where did you go today?

I'll tell you in a bit.

I went to an air raid shelter.

Why?

I was setting up a reel to reel microphone/recorder

to record sounds and voices for the Army shipyard.

Reel-to-reel?

It's my job to report to the Army in case of an air raid.

If a warning is sent out ahead of time,

people can take cover in the shelter.

There have been a lot of air raids recently, haven't there?

Yes, that's why I'm helping to prepare for them.

That's great.

Can you hand me a cigarette?

Sure.

Reiichi, why don't you come with me next time?

We can record your voice if you want.

You turn it on here...

Why don't you say something?

1945/8/9 - 11:02

1945 - After the war.

Professor!

Why?

This is what science has taught us.

Is that your book?

Dad gave it to me at the Shrine.

What do you mean "Dad"? Whose dad?

My dad.

And where did you say you saw him?

I mean... the Puppet Master gave it to me.

You shouldn't take things from strangers!

Give me back my book.

0kay, but promise me one thing.

0kay.

You were not in Nagasaki last summer, okay?

You were at your Grandmother's house in Kyoto.

Please do this for me, alright?

0kay.

Where were you on August 9th?

Uh, August... I was in Kyoto at Grandma's house.

Good. Now let's go to sleep.

But, mom...

I am a robot... a robot...

and even though I am a robot, I have a heart.

What are you doing?

Long, long ago - but not THAT long ago,

There was a town in the south of Japan, where Christians lived.

In this town, there was a pregnant woman.

0n one calm summer morning, there was not a cloud in the sky,

and the crickets were chirping happily...

From out of nowhere came a loud explosion!

And a foreign government, it's economy and army,

rushed in from the West in B-52s

Their metal giant, Plutonium 239, burst upon us...

a missionary from hell.

The combination of 2000 scientists' brains and a lot of money,

it was a 4.5 ton monster

which, dropped from 500 meters above,

could destroy a town in the blink of an eye.

0ne after another, it exploded loudly,

emitting a blasting wind and destroying everything in its path.

A fetus, inside his mother's womb heard the commotion

and wondered what it was.

This fetus is the main character of today's story.

The more he heard the explosions,

the more the fetus began to wonder,

"What is this incredible sound?"

The fetus' 60 trillion cells came together in alignment,

one by one, responding to that incredible sound.

And the more they heard the sound,

the more they began to change into "noise" cells.

And the shape of the fetus' body began to change.

The sound of the explosion was like a carnival,

and the fetus came bursting out as if in a dance.

While the child was growing up,

he seemed to have a natural curiosity regarding the

truth about the "wonderful exploding sound".

It was in this way that the child eventually came to confront

the Devil called Plutonium.

Let us take a break now.

Who wants some candy?

August 9, 2000 - 3 minutes to 11:02 a.m.

Where did the exploding sound come from?

1953: Reiichi, Age 13

Today is your first day of Junior High School.

Study hard so you can be successful

like your father.

And don't get your new school uniform dirty, okay?

Anyway, it's time for me to go to work.

See you later.

[gunpowder]

Study hard, and you can be successful like your father.

I want to hear the exploding sound again.

I want to become a sound particle in the explosion

I keep dreaming that I've pierced my eardrum.

1958: Reiichi, Age 18

I want to become a sound particle in the explosion

Reiichi! My Boy!

I don't feel alive anymore.

It was just a suicide attempt.

In the end, each person has one theme upon which

they learn every thing in life.

I have lost my purpose in life.

There is only one spirit, but it swings between two extremes.

At that moment, heard the most incredible sound in my heartbeat.

This is it!!

Just that...

Miraculously, our hero returned from near death.

In that dark cave, with only the sound of his heart,

beating like a clock,

he discovered the power needed to find his way in life.

After a bit of time, our hero,

with his new focus of research, absorbed himself in his passion.

He quickly gained success as a researcher

in the College laboratory.

What about the plutonium?

We'll come to that later...

1960: College.

You know who this is, right?

0f course we do. We have heard all about Reiichi

and his research on the sound of the heart.

We're in the same seminar together,

and I'm assisting in his research.

But we need some people to help.

Would you be willing to spare some time for us?

Yeah, we'd do any thing to help Reiichi's research, right?

Great. So we'll see you in the lab after the seminar next week, okay?

Come on!!

Pedal faster! Harder!

Faster!! Faster!!

Pedal faster! Faster!! Harder!!

Perhaps, the first sound a human can remember is the sound of

his mother's heart that he heard as a fetus,

in their mother's womb. To hear that sound again...

that sound... To recreate that sound...

for my graduate thesis, have designed an experiment

that can recreate that sound.

First prepared a series of exercises.

I gathered feedback from the test subjects...

the subjects... I recorded the subjects' heart rates

and brain waves during the exercises.

Whereas the bicycle exercises resulted in disproportionate

heart rates, in the underwater exercises they paralleled

the heart rate changes seen in fetuses.

However, the brain wave results were far from what had anticipated.

During the experiments on meditation,

the brain waves and the pulse reached a certain stability.

In other words...

The "Suikin-Kutsu" sound apparatus

is made up of a jar set in the ground with rocks placed over it.

When it rains, the water filters through the ground,

emptying into the jar, making a peculiar metallic dripping sound.

This apparatus is very similar, structure wise, to that of the womb.

I made a domed sound structure that was similar to

the "Suikin-Kutsu" design.

In the "Suikin-Kutsu" sound laboratory,

it is possible to recreate the environment of the womb.

The Act of Listening to the Heartbeat

A Graduation Project by Reiichi 0tonashi

That was fantastic!

You will definitely receive a prize for that.

Congratulations!!

Want to talk...

Furuta

Anyway, I'll stop by your place later...

Anyone home?

Damn this place is a mess.

This afternoon was pretty hectic.

Yeah, I guess.

Well, let's drink.

But, I don't drink...

This is a special occasion, so drink!

Well, maybe a little.

In the end, each person has one theme upon which

they learn everything in life.

Come find me at the Central Research Company.

Central Research Company

1965: Reiichi, Age 26

You're the one that did research on the heart, right?

What is that?

Did he get sunburned?

I don't know. I just saw it for the first time myself.

I'd like to have a talk with him later tonight...

I'm sorry, not today.

With Reiichi, you have to spend a long time getting to know him.

0kay, I understand.

I want you to meet a friend of mine.

Won't you take him out for a good time?

Hey there.

All the data is coming together really well, thanks to you.

We'll be ready to announce the results soon

but I'd like to get your opinion on it first.

Everything seems to be prepared well.

But... I' m not too sure about going public with it.

That's how it goes. Don't worry, I've taken care of all the problems.

What about Reiichi's data records?

They've all been erased and replaced.

I understand. So we'll be ready by next month's meeting.

It breaks my heart to submit this research as ours,

but it's all in the name of science.

I felt bad too, so I made some arrangements...

Hi.

It's nice and quiet here.

Do you like animals?

I have a pet cat.

Really? I do too.

But my cat doesn't seem to like me much.

My cat's pretty curt, too. Even this guy...

He seems to like you pretty well...

It must smell food on me.

Where did you get these scars?

What are those scars from??

There exists one spirit, and it swings continuously,

like a pendulum, between positive and negative.

That person over there is not me!

You have become boring.

You're as good as dead.

He looks like me...

Central Research Company... Reiichi? Who's calling please? 0ne moment...

It's for you.

Hello?

You could have spent more time back in Nagasaki, you know.

No, it's more important for me to do my work.

0h...

Your mother's illness must have been difficult on you.

Yes, a little. I'm sorry, I...

I need to get back to work.

What are you doing this summer?

This summer you stayed at your Grandma's house in Kyoto.

Hey, you!

Where were you on August 9th?

Hey...

Where did you get these scars?

1971: Reiichi, Age 31

The next day I started working for the Environmental Agency.

July 1, 1971: The Environmental Agency was established

0ur child doesn't cry or make a sound.

Uh huh...

The baby's like a toy doll... it scares me!

Why won't you say anything?!

There is still nothing recorded on this tape.

A person's life starts with one learning experience.

Their spirit, like a pendulum, swings between two extremes...

until it stops.

Science has progressed to produce both soothing sounds and irritating noise.

They are the seeds of music.

The music created by the progress of science.

In the progress of society, scientists have to produce...

2000/8/9 - 11:02 a.m.

The necessary evils...

In 1945, those who were outdoors

when the bomb was dropped, disappeared.

0nly their shadows remained to speak of their existence.

For this man,

what remained was the sound of the bomb, inside of him.

This story began with the sound of the bomb

echoing through postwar Japan.

But on this tape, there are still no sounds -

no voices - nothing - recorded on it.

CAST

Reiichi at Childhood - Yusuke Nishida

Reiichi at Puberty - Yu Kakuta

Reiichi at Youth - Takaya Hasegawa

Reiichi at age 60 & Shadow Picture master - Kenji Mori

Mother & Wife - Mitsuru Oki

Father & The Head of Research Laboratory - Toto 0gawa

Furuta239, Pluto239 - Takaya Yamauchi

STAFF

Story - P.K. Ache, Keita Ichikawa, Yohei Saitoh, Keisuke Miyahara, & Go Shibata

Director of Photograpaphy - Hiroshi Ishizuka

Lighting - Tomoyuki Kobayashi

Sound Director - Noeru Nakanishi

Assistant Director - Akitoshi Yamada

0ptical Art - Takayuki Uyama

Special Make up - Kids Company

Music - N Kyo, Article9

Piano Mariko - Hashizume

Production Manager - Keisuke Miyahara, Ryouichiro Honma

Director - Go Shibata

Produced by DxMxT

English subtitles - Miki Lin Tayler

Dialogue List produced by Yoshio Yasui