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 88 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 15 staves in the Valley?
Not 16?
No, just 15. Why?
There was this weird mark
on the ceiling above his bed. It looked like a 16.
Sayon was 16 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 88 temples.
There's so many...
There's 15.
15 of these sliding doors.
It look like 88 seals on each one.
She's been around 15 times.
Now she's on the 16th...
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!
I've seen that...
I've seen that look on her face!
Let go!
Hinako...
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 16?
Yes.
If her mother was gone 15 times,
and is on her 16th...
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!
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!
I saw Sayon!
She was there!
Fumiya...
I wanted to see you...
I've come back...
... just the way I was.
Fumiya?
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...
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.
- English subtitles (converted by hand from a VCD) by Doze -