Tales of the Bizarre

Satomi Ayukawa (Miho Nakayama) has a strange power: when she touches an object, she sees the past of the person connected to it. She's just seen an unpleasant part of an arranged-marriage prospect's past. Later, her car stalls on a mountain pass and a man (Johnny Okura) gives her a lift. In the passenger seat she picks up a pendant — and an image of a woman being strangled floods into her mind.

High schooler Natsuko Yamazaki (Kaori Sakagami) discovers various rumors written on her younger brother's floppy disk. On a whim, she adds a rumor she invents herself: that if you play with a lone boy named Makio in the park at night, you'll never come home. The rumor spreads instantly and gradually becomes true.

Kazuyuki Yamada (Hironobu Nomura) was thinking of marrying Yoko Karasawa (Azusa Nakamura), but she's easily stolen away by a rich man, leaving him bitter. A strange old man appears and tells him of a sugoroku (board game) that Yang Guifei played with the men she gathered in China's Tang dynasty. Reach the goal and you become fabulously wealthy — but whatever is written on the square you land on comes true.

Industrial spy Satoru (Yuji Oda) sneaks into a bio-chemistry research lab. While copying classified documents he's caught by researcher Kunio Saguchi (Yasunori Danda). Fighting desperately to escape, Satoru kills him. Hearing a guard's footsteps close in and with nowhere to run, he dives into a locker...

The old woman who runs a candy shop (Kyoko Kishida) tells the children who visit about the spirits of darkness. Enraged at humans for destroying nature, the spirits — who once attacked people — were sealed behind a wall by a virtuous monk. That wall is inside this shop, and she has guarded it ever since. Then three punks show up demanding she vacate the store...

Yoshimi Sato (Yu Hayami) and her husband Kenji (Hisayuki Nakajima) buy a used property and get the home they'd always wanted. But right after moving in, a string of incidents — smashed windows and the like — appear to be someone's harassment. With no idea of the cause, the couple grows anxious. Yoshimi consults a detective (Junkichi Orimoto), but he only offers to patrol the area...

Doctor Naoto (Tsutomu Sekine) is about to marry Yoshiko Imamura (Mio Takaki). He buys a used detached house and moves in. One morning he wakes to a foul stench in the house. Unable to bear it, he fills the place with air fresheners. A neighbor says the previous resident, Shigeo Iijima (Lou Oshiba), is an oddball who lives nearby. Then a wedding ring is found at the back of a closet...

Career woman Kaoru Sawada (Junko Sakurada) lives alone in Tokyo, having left her husband and child in the countryside. One day she comes home to find the trash she'd put out that morning sitting by her door. The building manager, fed up with her ignoring the disposal rules, put it there. After a lecture from him, she finds herself unable to throw anything away...

A week has passed since the mother died. Ever since, the father (Toru Masuoka) has been acting strangely. Fumiya is always afraid of him. Meals make the tension worse — everything must be eaten exactly as the father dictates. He dumps huge amounts of salt on the vegetables. Any attempt to talk is brushed aside. Whatever Fumiya does or says, the father grows more and more nervous and irritable.

Naoto (Masatoshi Nagase) is drawn to college student Yoko (Sayuri Kokusho), who has a rich boyfriend, Takuya (Yoji Sawamukai). One day the couple comes into Naoto's part-time workplace; he gives Yoko free cake, and Takuya beats him for it. But when he gets home, Yoko is waiting. "Take me to the sea..." Naoto becomes possessed by her charm.

Toshio Sugita (Kai Ato) and his wife Kogiku (Kumiko Oba) are celebrating their wedding anniversary alone. But one interruption after another prevents them from even toasting. Frustration builds, they turn on each other, and in a fit of rage Toshio beats Kogiku to death. Coming to his senses, he clutches her body and screams — then, suddenly, time rewinds...

Kazuhiko Sagawa (Masato Furoya) runs a con-like gold-selling business. Neglecting his family, his wife and child have left him. On another sweltering day, tramping around rural farmhouses, he feels ill. An old woman nurses him and invites him to her home, where her daughter and grandchild seem to live. Then the old woman introduces Sagawa as her son...

The small factory run by Torao Ishikawa (Hiroshi Fuse) is buried in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy. The Ishikawa family owns a "monkey's paw," a keepsake from his father that grants any three wishes in a lifetime — but for each wish granted, misfortune strikes as payback. Two wishes have already been used. With his wife Shizu (Michiko Shimizu) worried and his back against the wall, the desperate Torao finally...

Around Tetsuo Makimura (Ryo Takayama), his parents, the family dog, and his grade-school teacher have all gone missing. Meanwhile, Tetsuo and a friend sit at a computer. Moments earlier, delinquent middle schoolers had hassled them and stolen a game cartridge. Tetsuo scans one delinquent's student ID — and a character that looks just like the delinquent rises up inside the computer game...

Newlyweds Fukuko (Yuyu / Yukiko Iwai) and Yukio die in a traffic accident on their honeymoon. They come to before God (Seijun Suzuki) and beg to be brought back to life. God says he'll grant it if they can bring together a certain man and woman — Yoshio Kagawa (Sonomanma Higashi) and Saeko Asakura (Rikako Murakami). But Kagawa and Saeko are like cats and dogs.

Housewife Eiko Kitazawa (Yoshie Kashiwabara) is hesitating over a supermarket bargain — more product than she needs — when Midori Yamagishi (Miyuki Kosaka) offers, "Shall we split it in half?" The two become friends and keep dividing all sorts of things in half. One day they want a parakeet, but since a bird can't be halved, they decide to take turns keeping it, until...

Mariko Yoshinaga (Momoko Kikuchi) is beautiful but always dresses and behaves plainly — because whenever she's complimented, she unconsciously steals something. One day she meets Ryohei Sasaoka (Ichirota Miyakawa), who falls for her at first sight. When Sasaoka praises her, before she knows it, she...

Junpei Hoshino (Eisuke Tsunoda) has a crush on classmate Mika Saeki (Hikari Ishida), the school beauty. Once he found a Valentine's chocolate from her in his shoe locker, but assumed it was a mistake. One day his friend Manabe, whose family runs a funeral home, suggests Junpei fake his own death to test her feelings. With his friends' help, Junpei's funeral is held.

Heartbroken Kazuhiko Saji (Toru Kazama) sits on a park bench, wistfully looking at a music box he'd meant to give as a gift. He notices a girl in mourning clothes crying and works up the courage to speak to her. Her mother has died, she says. To cheer her up, Saji gives her the music box. Delighted, she agrees to meet him again at the same time next week — but...

Masao Tanizawa (Kenjiro Ishimaru) and his wife Yoshiko (Mako Ishino) go camping with their children. On the way, Masao tells the kids about the cycle of life. They reach a river, where the family eats fish Masao catches. Perhaps influenced by his story, the children bury the fish bones and make a grave. Later, out playing in the forest, the children witness a hunter accidentally shoot his companion.

Kaoru Inoue (Koyo Maeda) and Haruka Tono (Marina Watanabe) head to their reserved hotel in Karuizawa. But the roads are jammed and, thanks to Kaoru's mistake, the reservation was for a month ago. Haruka is about to blow up. They search for another hotel, but everywhere is full. Just as they're about to give up, a hotel clerk appears vaguely and shows them to a special room — an oddly old-fashioned place...

Officer Norihisa Ninomiya (Tsurutaro Kataoka), who hates lies, is a bundle of righteousness and is admired by his colleagues. Lately a "hammer robber" has been active in the area. One day Ninomiya spots a man climbing a utility pole with a hammer. In truth the man was only trying to fix a roof, but Ninomiya mistakes him for the hammer robber. As he tries to drag the man down, the man slips and falls to his death.

Paranormal researcher Professor Iwase (Noboru Nakaya) has become a leading authority by exposing the tricks of fake psychics one after another. Yet he never denied their existence — quite the opposite; his desire to meet a real psychic is exactly what drove his research and made him a debunker. One day Iwase dreams that someone is strangling him. Right after, a man named Kayama (Shiro Sano) comes to visit... (Based on Keisuke Yoshizawa, "Precognition," from Short-Short Theater 4: SF à la Carte, Futabasha)

College student Natsumi (Yoko Minamino) is pregnant by her boyfriend Tatsuo (Takeyuki Yue). But fed up with the mama's-boy Tatsuo ("everything's up to Mama"), she intends neither to have the child nor to marry. Then a stranger, a young man (Naoki Hosaka), appears and asks her — she does fortune-telling as a hobby — to read his fortune. When she reads it...

Job-hunting Nishihara (Shingo Tsurumi) visits a company, relying on Takano, a senior from his seminar. But Takano's meeting runs long and Nishihara is left waiting. To kill time he takes the elevator toward the basement staff cafeteria — but though he pressed the basement button, he somehow arrives on the roof. There a man speaks to him and begins telling of the people who commit suicide up here... (Based on Takashi Atoda, "Rooftop Scenery," from Tomorrow's Tale, Bungeishunju)

Kono (Masaki Kyomoto), an editor at a women's magazine, is on his way to visit the apartment of Endo, a college senior who writes a serialized novel for his magazine. In the rain, on the winding slope, he senses someone coming up from below — but no one appears. Then, from somewhere, a young child's voice calls "Mother." It comes again and again. Kono searches for the source of the voice... (Based on Takashi Atoda, "The Woman on the Slope," from A Matchbox Life, Kodansha)

Office worker Nishikawa (Keiko Saito) is diagnosed with a mild stomach ulcer at the hospital. On the way home, at a café called "Symptom," she sees someone who looks exactly like a colleague posted overseas. Back at the office, news arrives that the colleague has died. Later she sees her cousin at Symptom — and right after, the cousin dies too. The third time, it's her old college professor. She visits Symptom once more. (Based on Takashi Atoda, "Someone Who Resembles Someone," from The Eaten Man, Kodansha)

Yukari Matsuoka (Nana Okada) buys live crabs together with a neighbor housewife, Kyoko Kawasaki (Tokie Hidari). When she brings them home, her son Kenichi protests to his father Kotaro (Takayuki Godai) and Yukari that it's cruel since they're alive. In the end the family gives up eating the crabs. The Kawasaki household, meanwhile — Junji (Shigeru Saiki) and Kyoko — happily eat theirs. Then, that night...

One day a boy skipping cram school to play at a game arcade is approached by Motoji Toyoda (Kei Tani), who urges him to play a pinball machine in the corner. Score 100,000 points on it, he says, and a miracle will happen. Dragged home by his mother once, the boy returns to try again and racks up 100,000 points — whereupon the boy's and Toyoda's bodies switch.

Shunichi Saito (Kai Shishido) moves into a run-down apartment. The previous resident, a Russian, left his belongings behind — including what look like suspicious classified documents. Then a parcel addressed to that Russian arrives. Opening it, he finds an unfamiliar machine. When Shunichi touches it, a digital tone sounds and a countdown begins.

Machiko (Saya Takagi), a country girl who ran away from home, is reborn beautiful through plastic surgery and tries to start a new life in Tokyo. Her wish granted, transformed into a different person, she draws the gaze of men on the street and uses her beauty to toy with them. But at some point she starts being attacked and chased by strangers — until even the police...

Masao Watanabe (Shingo Yanagisawa) is an unremarkable, ordinary salaryman. One morning his family suddenly starts staring at his face. "Don't look at me like that," he says, but they keep staring in silence. Once he leaves the house, everyone turns their gaze on him. Even at the office, everyone's faces are pointed his way. Masao has no idea why he's being watched.

Yamaguchi (Jun Hamamura), a middle-school teacher during the war, moves into a nursing home. The one who greets him there is a former student, Yoshimura (Goichi Yamada). But Yamaguchi doesn't realize Yoshimura was his student. Yoshimura treats Yamaguchi with a smile, yet his eyes never smile. In fact Yamaguchi was a very strict, army-bred teacher whose violent discipline had damaged Yoshimura's hearing.

Taichiro Ochiai (Nagareru Hagiwara), consumed by gambling and drink, is chased by debt collectors every day. One day, heading home after drowning his sorrows, he meets an eerie fortune-teller. The fortune-teller tells him: you haven't visited your family grave in a while, and I can see your father calling you. He also foretells: beware of what you bump into — it should be what saves you...

Keiko Kawasaki (Karin Yamaguchi) despises Yukiko Kawasaki, who lives in the same building. One day a letter addressed to Yukiko is delivered to Keiko's mailbox by mistake. Keiko sets out to deliver it, but just as she's about to press the intercom she overhears insults about herself, so she stops and opens the letter instead. It's from Yukiko's affair partner. Keiko hits on a plan for revenge...

Konatsu Makimura (Manyo Hamada) encounters a strange procession on her way to the village where her grandfather Ryusuke (Masami Shimojo) lives. It's called a "swamp-sending." She reaches Ryusuke's house and is relieved to see him well. In fact she came to the village today because her dead grandmother appeared in a dream and told her to help her grandfather. When Konatsu mentions encountering the swamp-sending, Ryusuke is shaken.

Twenty-four-year-old salaryman Yuji Sato (Ryosuke Miki) takes the plunge and buys a detached house in the suburbs. The day after moving in, after a two-and-a-half-hour commute to the office, a year has somehow passed. He's apparently now dating the company's beauty — with no memory of it. The next day, another year has gone by. It seems that every time he rides the train, time advances...

Nobuko (Mariko Kaga) has worked at Orient Trading for 20 years and is the oldest in the office. Nagging and prickly, she's shunned by the younger women. One payday she's stunned to find 100 million yen deposited into her account. A man named Natsuo Toda (Daijiro Harada) of "CS Publishing" approaches her with smooth talk, and Nobuko finds herself drawn to him...

Heihachi Negami (Hideji Otaki), posing as his grandson, has been corresponding with a high school girl named Miki who looks just like Yukiko, the girl he loved long ago. One day Miki's letter says she's coming to Tokyo this Sunday and asks to meet him. Sunday is tomorrow. Negami has long regretted never telling Yukiko how he felt. But Miki is not Yukiko. He resolves to tell her the truth.