Woman
Episode 11 Final: "To Our Children's Children"
Is this because of yesterday's winds?
Mom, look!
Nozomi, don't touch the underwear.
- They bloomed! - Whaa!
Awesome, awesome!
They bloomed, they bloomed!
That's awesome, isn't it?
- Good morning. - Come look! They bloomed!
They bloomed!
I picked this up!
With nothing but bread for breakfast, I don't feel like eating.
Riku says, "bread is fine."
- Should I make you some miso soup? - No, no, that's okay.
It's just that back when I was studying abroad, I had French bread every morning.
I'm done eating.
You studied overseas?
He'll just start bragging, so it's best you don't ask.
- What is "studying overseas"? - It's best not to get him started.
Back when Sloth-san was young...
...I lived in Paris.
Is that right? Nozomi.
And that's why I know French cuisine very well.
Jibie to start; then foie gras. (Jibie - wild game)
Rabbit!
- Escargot! - Rabbit?!
No, no, I didn't eat rabbit.
What is "escargot"?
Those are snails.
In France, everyone eats them.
It's true!
Well, since it's a common food there...
It's the same as clams here!
They eat them, right?
They do eat them!
They do eat escargot!
- Have a nice day! - I'm going.
Mom, I have a riddle for you.
A riddle? Yes.
Though it is something of mine...
...what is it that Mom uses even better?
Eh?
Think about it before I come back.
- I'm off! - Have a nice day!
Do you know what it is?
I have no idea!
- Have you slept? - Yeah.
Do you want to eat some, too?
It's kobujime with tarako... (Kobujime - fish sandwiched between sheets of kelp; Tarako - cod roe)
And what's this? A curry bacon-cheese onigiri.
No thanks.
Well then, I'll eat it all.
Is it today?
When the results of Aoyagi-san's sister's HLA tests are released.
Around noon. Her sister will come at 4pm.
We've got our hopes up for it, don't we?
It's no good talking about it; no good at all.
That's true.
Still...
- It'd be nice if they were a match. - Yes.
Good morning, I'm Uesugi.
- Please give me your help. - You're the newbie?
- Come with me to the washing place. - Yes.
- Use a louder voice. - Yes!
These have an expiration date of today, so everyone do your best.
It's Dad!
I've brought them back.
Thank you.
It's Daddy.
Ah...
Here, if you'd like.
Thank you very much.
I got flowers.
- Ahh... - Ahh...
The person who couldn't handle the quota was given a punishment game.
You should stop getting into those punishment games.
- Is your stomach full? - I'm full...
If you aren't going to eat, please do something funny instead.
I won't do anything funny.
Mom, can't you imitate someone?
I can't.
- Who can she imitate? - I won't do it.
- You should. - I won't.
You don't have to be shy about it...
No, I won't do that. I won't.
You should.
I'll do it.
I'll imitate a person who laughs while being angry.
What is that, you rascal?! What are you saying, you fool rascal?!
What are you saying, you rascal?
Eh?
Wha... what was that?
It was a person who laughs when they get angry.
Why would they laugh when they're angry?
Ala, Shiori-chan. It's been a long time.
Good afternoon.
Obaa-chan, how are your hips doing?
So-so.
We've decided to get divorced.
Really?
What about Shunsuke-kun?
Ah, I'm sorry for all the bother about that.
My mother has come and I also found some child care nearby.
I'll do my best.
Because you'll be doing your best, let me know if you'll have difficulty over the night shift.
Ah, yes.
Ah, Sawamura-sensei. The test results have come back from the Center.
Ah, right away...
It's steadily getting clearer, isn't it?
- Ooh... - Ooh...
Sacchan, a minute.
I've got my hands full at the moment.
Um... We have a guest waiting.
Eh?
- A minute... - Then, I'll take over for you.
Okay Riku, get down.
What's missing is...
She says she wants to apologize to Koharu-chan for earlier.
What happened there?
I'm okay.
I wonder if this is enough?
I'll go ask.
Yeah. If you would please.
Shi-chan!
Yes.
Ah... Ah then, let's sit down.
Aoyagi-san's...
Your hand?
By "hand" I mean... your finger?
- How did yours get...? - Ah.
In the dishwasher door...
- You got it caught? - Yes.
While at work.
- Are you working? - Yes.
A dishwasher shuts like this, doesn't it?
I've done that, too.
What about drawing? You don't draw anymore?
No.
Why not?
- Eh? Why? - I'm sorry.
Um...
I had a dream come to me...
A dream?
Ehh...
There were two of them.
There's one where I choose to say...
"This man is a molester."
The other one is the dream I didn't choose though...
"The other one"?
Where I intended to call out to him with, "Brother-in-law."
All this time...
...I've kept dreaming about the choice I didn't make.
"I'm your wife's younger sister..."
"...but I felt annoyed when you came to my home just now."
And then he'd say, "I see, sorry, sorry."
"So you're Koharu-chan's little sister, huh?"
"Then please come around to our home next time and visit us."
I think that dream probably matches what he would have said.
I think Shin-san would have said that.
"Because you guys are sisters..."
"...I think you could become friends."
"I'm sure you'd get along well."
"Koharu-chan, I met your younger sister today."
"She's a nice girl who loves to draw."
"Your sister is a very interesting person."
"When she talks, I get this warm feeling from her."
"In height, she's a little shorter than you are, Koharu-chan."
"In height, she's a little taller than you are."
"I think you share some things in common."
"You're both a little awkward."
"You both love children."
"You can be friends; you can be family."
"I'm sure you'd get along well."
If I had talked to him in that way...
...any number of things may have started.
That's the dream I would see.
I guess things would be entirely different now, right?
For you, for me and for Shin-san, too.
Things would be different now and we could have been saying...
..."Onee-chan" and "Sister" to one another...
But that choice wasn't made.
Because you didn't make that choice.
Please.
Once it seems fit...
At that time...
...please think of me as your younger sister.
Please.
I'll be going to the hospital.
This seems impossible.
Our first meal at a family restaurant.
Well, as students, it was normal for us to go to family restaurants, wasn't it?
Those were family restaurants, but we were on dates, weren't we?
Like being on a konjac plant tour? (Konjac - jelly made from the starch of devils tongue plant)
Can you carry three of them?
Leave it to me!
It's just been an instant, hasn't it?
And now Shunsuke's four years old...
About the remittances...
...I got in touch with that lawyer whose business card you gave me the other day.
I'm sorry.
Why are you apologizing, Aiko?
Aiko...
- Nonomura Aiko-san. - Yes?
As for "motherhood"...
That was a word made by men so they could run away.
A love for their child isn't something split into "motherhood" and "fatherhood."
We...
...should have shared that love between us...
...and struggled for it hand-in-hand.
Ah, well done, Shunsuke!
Here, thank you.
"The Ugikuku Children"
Hey, ah, it's raining!
Ah! The wash, too.
Because your sister didn't take her umbrella, I'll go pick her up.
Riku, don't you touch that kitchen knife!
Mom!
It's really raining out! Kyaa!
What are you doing? Get inside!
It just suddenly started falling!
Kyaa!
Nozomi! Get in here!
Look, look! It's like a water slide!
Kyaa!
You're right! Incredible! What an incredible rain!
- Riku! - Riku!
What are you doing?!
- I received a special flower circle! - Oh!
- That's awesome. Let me see. - Just a minute.
- I want to read the words from Sensei. - Yes.
"It's nice you did a lot of fun things during your summer vacation."
"It was very great of you that you took care of Sloth-san."
"What is it you feed Sloth-san?"
Sensei thinks Sloth-san is my pet.
I'm human. Didn't you write that down properly?
I forgot.
He doesn't think he's a real sloth, does he?
He couldn't! I'm a human. Human!
I forgot.
I wonder why your teacher thought he was your pet?
Yes, this is the Uesugi residence.
I wonder if he thinks he's a dog?
Yes. Ah, thank you.
Maybe a snail.
- Ehh? - Please wait just a moment.
- It's Abiko-san. - Ah...
Okay.
Yes, yes, yes. Hello, hello, yes.
Eh? Sunday? Yes.
Mom, did you figure out my riddle?
I'm not sure yet.
- Do you want me to tell you the answer? - Hold on.
Look, get into the bath.
Uesugi Shiori-san.
- Please enter. - Yes.
Ready yet?
- We're ready! - We're ready!
- Ah, I'm sorry. - Go ahead.
Can I come in?
Go ahead and look for them.
Excuse me.
Here...?
Here! Ala?
Hmm? Where are they?
Nozomi's not here.
Riku is...
Yes, this is the Uesugi residence.
Yes.
Riku, you mustn't! She'll find us!
A caramel...
- Hurry and come back. - I'll give it to Dad.
All right. Just hurry it up!
Hurry, hurry!
"If anything, I'm in the museum camp."
"I'm firmly in the zoo camp."
"Zoo camp? Isn't that a little childish?"
"Zoos have life in them, right?"
"A museum..."
"...is made mostly of dried-up things like mummies."
"No, for tens of thousands of years..."
"There are things in them from hundreds of thousands of years ago."
"But they're all dried-up."
"Doesn't a zoo only smell of things like elephant crap?"
"Eh, can you feel life in that kind of smell?"
"Our hobbies don't exactly match, do they?"
"They don't match."
"Why do you climb mountains?"
"Eh?"
"And please answer me seriously."
"I won't."
"Hmm..."
"It's the same as reading."
"Eh?"
"I want to know what's written on the last page."
"I want to know what the answer is."
"To what?"
"Why are we alive?"
"For the answer to that?"
"Koharu."
"About when you asked me why I climb mountains before."
"The answer to being alive is on the last page."
"I know what it is."
- "The answer?" - "Yeah."
"There isn't an answer for life."
"For as long as you live, all sorts of things will happen..."
"...but yet you're never given an answer..."
"I think it's because people can't read that final page."
"The ones who can read that final page..."
"...are the children."
"Finding the answer as to why you and I are alive..."
"...is for our children."
"Someday, after you and I are gone..."
"...our children..."
"...will read about the life that we lived."
"Our lives will be read about by our children."
"And then our children will take that book..."
"...hmm, and then hold it to their chests..."
"...and ask it for the answer..."
"...and in that way, get why we were alive."
"What we were sincere about and what we strove as hard as we could for."
"That we prayed our children wouldn't be ashamed of us."
"And will follow along after us in that way."
"Our children will continue it on for their children's children."
"And for their children's children..."
"...and onward to the children's children of those children."
"In that way, it will be read and passed on."
That we prayed our children wouldn't be ashamed of us.
And will follow along after us in that way.
And our children to their children to their children.
Their children to their children...
...to their children to their children to their children.
In that way...
...it will be read and passed on.
- This... is difficult. - One more time.
One more time?
- It is difficult... - And then like this...
This... is difficult.
Eh? This is?
Ala? It's wrong somehow.
It was kind of an unpleasant experience somehow.
He said, "Yes! Next person come in!"
When I got in, "Yes, let me check your lungs." Here, with a stethoscope.
- Is there enough? - Yeah. There's plenty.
"Yes, inhale!"
That doctor is a very old man who does that sort of thing.
"Yes! Stop!"
So then I stopped inhaling and held my breath.
"Yes! Stop inhaling!"
And I thought, "Ala?"
"When to I get to exhale?"
"Yes! Inhale!"
"Stop!"
"Inhale!"
My face was turning red...
...but I was still breathing in, huff, huff.
Riku-kun, is this funny?
No. Not much.
Not much, huh? I see.
Eat up.
Ah, here.
It's cooled down now.
- It's delicious. - Is it good?
It is.
That's beer. You can't have that.
And then, when we went to the library, Mom was reading this one book.
You promised not to tell that story to others, didn't you?
Eh? What kind of book was it?
It's nothing. It was just a normal book.
It was a book about eating insects.
Eh!
That surprised me!
This is a dust cloth...
"The apartment manager gave me some pudding..."
...is what she told me happily when I got home.
Because that was my first pudding in a year.
Eating dinner was done and at last the time for the pudding had come...
...and we were going to eat it... And then what happened?
The bowl had gotten all musty.
- Um, I would go to the 100 yen store. - Yeah.
Um, they even remembered my name.
Whenever I went, they told me, "welcome back."
- Shh! - Shh!
You say "shh," even though you told?
That was funny.
I have lots of such stories.
It would get desperate for us from time to time, but thinking back on it now, it was funny.
Say, hasn't Riku-kun grown a little?
Eh? Sideways?
- My head. - Your head's gotten bigger?
Have you eaten dinner?
Have you slept?
If only for today, come have a good long sleep.
Shiori.
She won't be coming in?
Yes. She said she's leaving already.
Is that right.
Yes. She says she's leaving now.
I...
...don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive her.
But I have been thinking this way.
The children may find out about it someday.
At that time, I...
I will tell the children I don't want them hating her.
Taking their feelings of love for Shin-san and coming to hate someone...
Those feelings for someone precious...
That would...
...turn those feelings into hate.
That would be painful.
Please tell her this.
"Thank you for taking the examination."
"When the time for the surgery comes, please take care of me."
Please tell this to my younger sister.
"Thanks to you, I will live."
"So you should live, too."
- Mom. - Huh?
Have you ever eaten escargot?
Have you?
Hmm? Nope, I haven't. No.
They're no good to eat.
Good night.
Yes, good night.
- Good night, Mom. - Good night, Nozomi.
- Nozomi, get up. - What is it?
I know the answer.
"Though it is something of mine..."
"...what is it that Mom uses even better?"
You know what it is?
It's "Nozomi."
Your name, Nozomi.
- Correct answer. - All right!
I should use Mom's name more often, shouldn't I?
Good night, Koharu.
Good night, Nozomi.
- Are the children asleep? - Yes.
Mine's asleep, too.
She's been writing in that all this time, huh?
- Ah, is it okay do this here? - Of course.
It's patchwork... I only just started.
Ehh...
I can still only do this much...
Want some tea?
- Ah, I'll take some. - Yes.
That's a sample. He doesn't drink such things.
I wonder if we could drink a little of it...
There's no cups...
Here.
"July 10th, clear."
"I got on the train alone today."
"I met Mom at the Otsuki station."
"Mom was crying."
"When we got back to our Tokyo home..."
"...the three of us played with fireworks."
This is myself, crying.
Nozomi was at a friend of mine's home...
...when she got on the train alone and I had to go pick her up.
This was that time...
Ah! It's Sloth-san.
The time when he strained his back.
"July 13th, clear."
"Today we went to Mom's Mom's house."
"Mom and Mom's Mom had a huge fight over some chiku chahan."
(Chiku - tube-shaped fish paste cakes; Chahan - Chinese-style fried rice)
"August 4th, clear."
"We will be living in Mom's Mom's house starting today."
"There is a garden at the house."
"I think I won't forget my entire life..."
"...the time when I saw that garden."
Ah, she drew it well.
She's good... at depicting this part, too.
Ah...
Yatona sore yoiyoiyoi.
- "The feeling of bath salts." - This is? Here?
It's bath salts...
How bath salts feel.
Yeah.
"September 11th, clear weather followed by occassional rain."
"The Cosmos flowers bloomed."
"It's madoisen."
"What's called 'madoisen'..."
"...is when everyone in a family gets along well with each other."
"Diary with Illustrations Aoyagi Nozomi"
Ah. A gray hair.
Fool.
I've gotten old.
I feel I've gotten old.
You've gotten older, too.
Even I've gotten bigger, haven't I?
How many centimeters tall are you?
161 or 162 cm. (5ft, 3in)
How many centimeters tall are you?
I'm the same as you, aren't I?
You can't be. I'm taller than you.
Though you were so short.
Strange, isn't it? That you've gotten so tall.
Right?
Right.
Though I gave you nothing.
Look... Remember that Typhoon Number 9?
When you were hospitalized.
I...
...was all alone at home.
Yes.
There was this terrible rain going on.
And the wind was something else, too.
Yes.
I was watching TV when it suddenly went off.
The river overflowed...
There was a landslide somewhere around town.
A lot of people had stories like mine...
...where suddenly, whoosh... they were in total darkness.
I opened a window...
...looked around...
...and it seemed like I was in the middle of a waterfall with all the rain and wind.
Trees had fallen over...
A store sign was blown away and then fell, right onto a car.
It was so incredible.
Yeah.
I could hear the voices of people crying...
And I heard the sound of fire sirens and ambulances the entire time.
I wondered if the rain would never stop...
And somehow, going on like this, maybe even the morning itself wouldn't come...
I wondered what was going to happen to me...
I was anxious.
I was scared.
It was scary.
Yeah.
And then you came into the room.
Even though the hospital wasn't nearby...
Even though the trains weren't running...
You had come home! Right? Isn't it?
Even though you were drenched...
...and with a look on your face like nothing was going on, you said...
..."I'm home," and "Koharu," like that...
You squeezed my hands...
...and held my body.
Until morning came...
- Say. - Huh?
Do you remember?
This story from when I was a child.
Yeah...
Your body, which was cold at first from the rain...
...gradually grew warmer.
And your hands, which were cold as well...
...gradually grew warmer.
Like that... you protected me...
...and made me feel treasured.
I had a different thought a little while ago.
"I wish there had been a typhoon all this time."
"I wish it had been pitch-black out all this time."
"I wanted to watch that typhoon with you."
That's why...
Um, that Typhoon Number 9...
...is a nice memory for me.
Yeah. I see...
Have I grown?
You have.
I wanted to show you that all this time.
That I had grown.
Because of that memory, I had grown.
That your child...
...had grown because of that memory.
We haven't been bound together in a long time, but...
We were separated, but...
Alternately...
I think we've kept on...
...crisscrossing through each other.
Like a cat's cradle.
That's why...
...I hope Nozomi and Riku...
...will someday feel so, too.
That I'm always holding their hands.
That their Mom is grasping their hands tightly...
Tightly.
Koharu.
Huh?
I'm glad we got to meet again.
I'm glad.
It's been a good day.
I'm home.
Welcome home.
Say. Mom, tell me a story from when you were a child.
You want a story from that far back?
Yeah...
The one when you went over to the home of a boy while holding a rice scoop...
...in order to get even with him.
Well...
Holding that rice scoop...
...I ran over there.
That wooden rice scoop...
...became thoroughly saturated with my sweat as I ran.
As I got near to the boy's home...
...I stared quietly from behind a telephone pole...
...at his mother who was holding a broom, sweeping.
"My rice scoop'd be no match against her broom," I thought.
So I waited and waited...
...for his mother to go away.
The sun gradually went down...
...and the crows were cawing...
...and somehow I just wanted to go back home.
"October 9th, cloudy."
"The day before Mom is to be hospitalized."
"Mom and me and my little brother..."
"...went for a ride on the Ferris wheel."
"November 3rd, clear."
"I went to the hospital."
"Grandma cut Mom's hair shorter."
"November 30th, clear."
"Grandma and Shi-chan went with us to the hospital together."
"Shi-chan gave Mom a drawing as a present."
"December 5th, rain then clear afterwards."
"This night I watched shooting stars."
"With me and my little brother..."
"...we made a wish for our Mom."
"December 31st, cloudy."
"Together with Sloth-san and Grandma and my little brother..."
"...we went to hear the bells on New Year's Eve."
"February 3rd, rainy."
"Together with Sloth-san, Grandma and my little brother..."
"...we held the Mamemaki."
(Mamemaki - a ceremony of scattering beans to drive away evil spirits)
Ah, welcome home.
I'm home.
Welcome home.
I'm home.
Riku, I'm home.
Welcome back.
"April 10th, clear."
"Mom has come back home."