A Quiet Life (Shizukana seikatsu / 静かな生活) (静かな生活)

TOHO CO., LTD

AN ITAMI PRODUCTIONS FILM

Eeyore and I were with our group that day,

headed to the institution for the mentally disabled.

Stop that! None of that here!

You can't do that!

Could you give me a hand?

- Look at that! - Aren't they from that institution?

That's why I didn't want it built around here.

They're a bad influence.

They won't let go! They're in heat.

Oh, no! They've turned into magnets again!

Shall we help them?

Let's go!

Excuse us!

Please let them go!

Sorry about that.

Let's stand up now. Don't cause trouble.

Up we go. Sorry, everyone.

Mi-chan, are you okay?

If it weren't for those people,

I'd have let them hug to their hearts' content!

You have any problems like that with Eeyore?

Well, he doesn't have anyone to play magnets with.

That must be a relief.

I guess in one sense.

Eeyore, let's go.

Come on.

A QUIET LIFE

Let me introduce you to my family.

My father is a novelist.

He's better known abroad than in Japan.

My mother's the one who holds the family together.

She's gentle but very strong.

My younger brother is the family clown.

And that's me.

I'd like to become an author of picture books someday.

That's my older brother, Eeyore. He's mentally disabled.

My father had been invited to a university in Australia,

and my mother was going with him.

This is the story of what happened that year.

It was the day before Mom and Dad were leaving.

See you.

Come straight home. We're having a family dinner.

It's our Last Supper.

Don't jinx us!

What if the plane crashes now?

It's Dad's usual death wish.

He's forgotten he's head of a family.

I'm off.

Study hard!

What's wrong?

Eeyore needs some kind of sport.

Should we have him start swimming again?

- Did you read something in the paper? - No, it's not that.

I just think he needs to work off some energy.

Eeyore, look how big your sex organ has gotten!

Let's go to the bathroom.

Can you really call it that?

For him it has nothing to do with sex.

My God!

A sex crime by a mentally disabled person.

Is it possible Eeyore might do such a thing?

With that worry hanging over them,

Mom and Dad left for Australia.

Excuse me.

Wait!

Not again!

I wish he'd stop but there's no way to contact him.

Next time we have to capture him.

I bet he's some kind of religious fanatic.

Remember that time Dad talked on TV about prayer?

"Though I'm not a religious man...

there's a movement of my heart that I can only call prayer."

I'm sure that got some believers worked up.

I have a son who's mentally disabled.

When he was little, he never uttered a single word.

And not just that:

When his mother talked to him, he wouldn't react at all.

We had a record album of birdsong at the time.

It had recordings of the calls followed by the birds' names.

For example, you'd hear the song of the bulbul.

Then the narrator would say...

"That was the bulbul," in a grave voice.

That record was somehow the only thing my son would react to,

so we'd play it every day, from morning to night.

My son kept listening to birdsong without saying a word,

until he turned six.

Summer came around.

Like every summer, I took him to our cottage in the highlands.

One morning I went out into the woods, my son on my shoulders...

when I heard a water rail cry.

That light, raspy call.

From above my head I heard, "That was the water rail."

For a moment I had no idea what had happened.

It couldn't have been my son.

I thought I was hearing things.

But I also felt it was possible he had spoken.

I hoped the water rail would call out again.

"If it does, and if I hear my son's voice again,

it might mean he's going to start speaking."

So I waited.

A gold birch tree shone in the sun and swayed in the wind,

and I looked on, waiting.

I believe that at that moment...

I was praying.

I'm not a Christian or a Buddhist...

yet there I was, an unbeliever,

engaged in what was unmistakably prayer.

At last the water rail called out again...

and from above my head...

I heard my son's voice, clear and bright:

"That was the water rail."

I remember when all those religious leaders and believers came calling.

That's when Dad turned into a hopeless neurotic.

So you think this man's trying to preach to Dad?

And convert him.

But what's the water for?

Does it hold some divine power?

Don't be stupid! It's just plain water.

I may not look it, but I have a scientific mind.

And now for the weather:

Overcast in the south.

Clear over the Sea of Japan.

I'll leave him in your hands.

Eeyore, you can take your time walking home.

Watch out for cars.

Yes... I've been careful.

Thank you.

Eeyore.

Excuse me.

Was it a car accident?

It doesn't look that way.

Thank goodness!

It wasn't a car accident. Seems to have been a child molester.

A child molester?

Is my brother here?

He left just a while ago.

He pushed the little girl into the hedge,

pinned her there,

undid his zipper,

and spurted in her face.

They call it "facial ejaculation."

Mixed with her tears, it made a soggy mess.

What if he had AIDS?

You know, someone was lurking by that hedge the other day.

Could it be the boy who lives here--

Thank goodness!

Even though he wasn't the perpetrator,

had Eeyore really been lurking by that hedge?

What had he been doing there?

Listen, Eeyore.

I have to go to the supermarket.

Could you go home alone when you're done?

Yes, I could go home.

Across Japan...

it will be partly cloudy.

There may be sudden showers in some areas.

What are you doing? This isn't the way home!

Let's go home!

We're going home.

Eeyore, let's go home.

Help!

Please help!

It's him!

I was wondering...

is that man connected to some religious organization?

Religious organization? Why?

Does this water have some spiritual power?

No, you see, this kind of criminal

prowls residential areas looking for victims.

Suspicious behavior like that leads to police questioning.

So he probably picked your house to use as a pretext

to claim he was delivering water to a famous writer.

I see!

The matter of the pervert was settled,

but I was still worried about Eeyore and the hedge.

Let's go.

Where are you going?

Let's go inside.

That was an excellent Mozart piece.

Piano Sonata No. 9, K. 311.

The pianist is home free now.

No more difficult passages.

Let's go home.

Dad took off for Australia, leaving us here,

because he had his own problems.

In order to explain, let me back up a bit.

Ma-chan.

I've decided to go to Australia too.

I thought Dad was going alone.

I've decided to go along.

For how long?

The University of Sydney invited him for eight months.

But taking care of Eeyore for that long...

Ma-chan, there's no need to worry.

I see! You'll answer the phone!

Your father's going through a crisis.

It's never been this bad before.

But there are deep forests in Australia.