MovieChat Forums > Fisshu sutôrî (2009) Discussion > Character Connections Across the Stories...

Character Connections Across the Stories? (Spoiler)


I'm not good at facial recognition, so when a movie plays across different time frames with characters in aging makeup or changes in facial hair, etc., I sometimes miss it. And I'm wondering whether I missed any here!

I did recognize the old guy in the record store as the hijacking leader, and I gathered from the film that he was one of the leaders of the 1999 doomsday cult, although I didn't recognize him in that scene.

I thought that I gathered from the film that the record store clerk was a member of the 1999 cult and was, in 1982, one of the two teenage boys who were into the mystery of "Fish Story." But I'm not sure I got that right, as that would make him close to 50 in the record store scene. And I'm not sure whether his buddy from the back seat was also in the 1999 segment.

And of course the science student saved by the "champion of justice" in 2009 appears on video in 2012.

If there were any other connections, I missed them! Which is to say that I thought that every other character in the 5 or 6 stories (1953 mistranslation flashback, 1973-5 band, 1982 fans on a date, 1999 doomsday cult, 2009 hijacking, 2012 record store) was unique to their story.

I'm hoping that someone who has watched the movie several times can correct anything I got wrong and add anything I missed.




Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

reply

so the father of the champion of justice was the boy eating the omelette in the bar who missed most of the go-rangers tv show.
that would make him maybe 40 in 2010, and his highly trained son, 20ish. He married the girl who was being attacked near the tunnel, is he supposed to then be the record store owner? the customer is clearly just a young guy although it puzzles me why he apparently wasn't aware of the comet.
the science student was saved by the champion, from execution by a doomsday cult guy.
The leading doomsday cult member was the guy in the mobility scooter, a hedonist who knew all along 2012 would be the end of the world. His two assistants split off and formed the ferry hijack cult thinking they needed an Ark (they got the date wrong but the tsunami right).
I don't know who the guy walking off in disgust from the first doomsday cult failure was (he had a friend who stayed behind).
also I don't know who the girl with the 60s hair who looked sadly at the crowd listening to fish story fitted in, or what if anything became of the band or the singer, or the manager. Oh wait I guess the band manager was the grand father of the champion of justice?

reply

[deleted]

I agree with everything calla-lily wrote, I got this all too. Great observation. :) I hope no one is confused anymore.

reply

[deleted]

I thought the band manager went on to become the doomsday cult leader, who then became the dying man on the mobility scooter in the record shop? At least, I thought it looked like they were all played by the same actor.

I figured that appearing in the 2012 segment book ended the film nicely, in that he was the character who started the whole thing off, by introducing the book which would then go on to influence the song, in the first place.

I also thought having him present in the record shop was another nice little crossover as it meant he was (unknowingly) interacting with his grown up son. (if I'm correct in my initial thought)

Either way, great film. It left me happy and smiling :)

reply

[deleted]

The other posts are all various degrees of wrong. More correct (perhaps missing a couple):

The girl who sleeps and forgets to get off the boat is the astronaut who calculates the missles at the end and saves the world
She is saved by the champion of justice, who is the son of the driver of the car in the 80s
The car driver hears the girl being assaulted by the side of the road, saves her, and they give birth to the champion of justice from above
The car driver divorces his wife before 1999 and goes to the beach where he meets his old friend, the abusive guy from the back seat of the car who the girl from the restaurant tells him to stand up to
While at the beach they witness 3 doomsday cult members, 1 of whom hijacks the ferry in the 2000s
The "leader" of the cult is the one in the scooter at the end of the movie
The band manager's son is the record store clerk

The overall flow is that a Japanese man lies, gets a job as a translator, fake translates Fish Story, the accountant at the publishing company takes a copy of the recalled book, her nephew "steals" the book from her house while she is on her deathband, the guitarist of a band he manages sees the book and writes the song and his son (eating omelette rice) hears the song will save the world one day (while the band and manager plot out the entire movie), the song is heard by the car driver who hears a scream during the silent part while driving in the dark, the driver stops and saves a girl and they have a son, the son saves a girl on a ferry from terrorists his father had met on a beach during a fake doomsday yeas prior, the girl saves the world from a meteorite while the band manager's son, the record store clerk, watches and is bothered by the former boss of the ferry hijackers.

reply

Well done! I entirely agree, though I couldn't have summarised it half so well. Thanks, rslssp.

What I love is the fact that all this is quite impenetrable through most of the film, but suddenly makes sense in the last few minutes. "Ah, I see!"

It must have been very noisy in cinemas as the credits were rolling and everyone was explaining it to everyone else.

reply

The car driver divorces his wife before 1999 and goes to the beach where he meets his old friend, the abusive guy from the back seat of the car...


..., the son saves a girl on a ferry from terrorists his father had met on a beach during a fake doomsday yeas prior,...


All correct apart from the quoted parts: it wasn't the driver (the father of the champion of justice) who was at the beach with the abusive friend, it was the third friend from the road trip in 1982, and as far as we are aware, the driver is still happily married to the woman he saved.

reply

> it wasn't the driver (the father of the champion of justice) who was at the beach with the abusive friend, it was the third friend from the road trip in 1982

That was my understanding too, though I'm not sure.

>The band manager's son is the record store clerk

Wow, I missed that. How is one supposed to deduce that?

reply

I answer myself: Yes, I saw it again and that's (very probably) true. The clue is transition (1.37.40), plus the reference to the five heroes (the Go-Rangers) at the beginning

reply