Yo ni mo Kimyo na Monogatari Synopsis & Movie Info

Marking the tenth-year anniversary of first broadcasting the popular Twilight Zone-like TV show Yo ni mo Kimyo na Monogatari, Fuji television has released this omnibus film featuring tales of the weird and creepy. The thread uniting the stories is a group of strangers stuck in a dark train station waiting for a storm to pass over. To kill time, a mysterious man in black (played by late-night television comedian Tamori) tells stories, each seemingly designed to freak out a specific member of his audience. The first segment called "One Snowy Night," directed by Masayuki Ochiai, tells of survivors of a plane crash in a remote mountain. The survivors are desperately trying to find shelter for the night before darkness falls and a blizzard hits. Mari (Asami Nakamura), a young woman who suffers from a broken leg, falls over with exhaustion. The other survivors dig her a protective hollow and promise to retrieve her when they find shelter. By the time they find a place, they are utterly exhausted. They forget about Mari -- that is until she comes and jogs their memory. The second section, called "Samurai Cellular" and directed by Masayuki Suzuki, parodies the famed Forty-seven Ronin story. Instead of being an upright moral paragon, Oishi Kuranosuke (Kiichi Nakai), the leader of the legendary 47, is much more interested in getting laid than protecting his master's honor. One day he discovers a cell phone, with a voice on the other end from the future, asking him if he were really as selfless and noble as the history books proclaim. Will the samurai save his place in history or save his neck? The third segment , Mamoru Hoshi's "Chess," concerns a metaphysical chess game a young grand master (Shinji Takeda) has with a mysterious older man (Renji Ishibashi). The final section, Hisao Ogura's "The Marriage Simulator," concerns a young soon-to-be married couple (Izumi Inamori and Takashi Kashiwabara) who experience a virtual reality program that forecasts their nuptials well into the future. Needless to say, it is not as rosy as the couple hoped. - Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide