Dogra Magra (ドグラ・マグラ)

O fetus...

O fetus...

Why do you undulate?

Is it the knowing of your mother's heart...

that fills you with dread?

Starring Shijaku Katsura

Yoji Matsuda

Eri Misawa

Leo Morimoto Jun Haichi Kaori Kobayashi

Hideo Murota

Kyoko Enami

Based on the novel "DOGRA MAGRA" by Kyusaku Yumeno

Screenplay by Toshio Matsumoto Atsushi Yamatoya

Producers Shuji Shibata Kazuo Shimizu

Directed by Toshio Matsumoto

Brother-in-law.

Brother.

It is me.

Please say something.

You're there, aren't you?

Why don't you answer?

Help me!

Someone please!

Anyone!

He's been extremely agitated.

He's asked where he is?

Yes.

Anything else?

He asked his name. Of course we've said nothing.

So it's exactly as before?

Precisely, sir.

Do you remember anything?

Do you know who I am?

I see.

I am...

Excuse me.

My card.

Department of Psychiatry, Kyushu University Hospital.

Professor Kyotaro Wakabayashi.

So this is...

Yes. Room #7 in the psychiatric ward.

Psychiatric?

When our Dept. Head, Dr. Masaki suddenly passed away...

a month ago. I temporarily took over.

Does that mean that I'm insane?

Insane?

Why do you ask?

I remember nothing.

Not even my name, or yesterday... Not even my face.

You've been through a hideous incident.

Medically speaking, what we term amnesic trauma.

A great shock?

Please tell me, doctor. What happened?

Who am I?

That you'll have to resolve yourself.

If your memory returns things will become clear.

Please forgive me, I was wrong.

Good morning.

Morning.

Forgive me.

I'm so sorry, my sister.

I betrayed you.

Do you know her name?

You remember her face?

Brother-in-law! Why are you here?

Do you know him?

Calm yourself down.

It'll come back.

Now go to sleep.

1,100 years ago in ancient China.

In the reign of Emperor Hsuan Tsung.

There was a handsome young painter named Wu Ching-hsiu.

The emperor was very fond of him. And gave him in marriage Dai, maid to his consort.

Wu Ching-hsiu lived a blissful dream...

with his beautiful bride Dai.

With his...

Sorry.

Now the Emperor was besotted by his consort, Yang Kwei Fei and did whatever she suggested.

She surrounded him with her foolish family...

and connived to banish all worthy courtiers from his side.

When Ching-hsiu saw this and the ignoring of portents, he worried greatly.

His painting was the only way to show the emperor.

He explained as much to his new bride.

"Will you lay down your life for the good of the land?"

"For you, I do so gladly."

He journeyed to his secret mountain studio. And drank a final cup with his bride.

"Let us meet again in the next life."

He strangled her with his bare hands...

then stripped the robes from her naked body. Feverishly he began to sketch.

On a scroll, he painted the body...

in various stages of putrefaction. His first aim, to let the emperor know...

the intransigence of life.

But the human body is quick to rot.

His brush could not keep up with the decay.

Upset, Ching-hsiu realized he needed yet another corpse. The madness was on him.

He killed another with a field mattock. And carried her off to his studio.

The villagers surrounded, then burnt his hideaway.

With that, he gave up.

He gathered up his unfinished scroll, his wife's jewels, her coral comb,

some of her bones and put them in his robe.

And ran for his life.

But when he arrived back at his home,

his bride Dai, called out then embraced him.

Alas, it was her sister, the young Fen.

A lithe young wench.

"I know that it is wrong for I cannot help but love you."

Said she, as she passionately wooed him.

The now deranged Ching-hsiu took her to his bed.

They fled the city and wandered the land.

Their boat capsized in a storm. Both thought that the end had come.

But a ship from Bohai did rescue them. And they travelled to Japan.

One night Ching-hsiu either fell or jumped to a watery grave.

The bereaved Fen wanted to follow him.

But the child inside her prevented such a course.

And she did bear a boy child.

Fen wrote down all that had transpired on the scroll...

and so it did pass down from generation to generation.

Such is the tale.

That girl in room #6,

she's become the Fen of 1,100 years ago.

So by sister she meant...

She's referring to Dai.

And brother-in-law is Ching-hsiu.

Exactly.

So, she's crazy, then.

And thinks that I'm Ching-hsiu!

Hilarious.

It's not that simplistic.

Which means?

You're both direct descendants of Ching-hsiu and Fen.

Ridiculous!

No, it's been documented.

The Wu family are direct descendants of Ching-hsiu.

Professor Masaki spent years validating the concept of...

- IPC, the Inherited Psychological Condition. - Inherited psychological condition?

Yes.

According to his research,

the great shock felt by your ancestors...

supersedes individual memories and passes through the bloodline.

I can't believe it!

Take a look at this.

"Young medical student strangles his bride-to-be."

"At Meinohama"

"Master Ichiro Kure"

"Night before the wedding"

"His bride-to-be"

"Moyoko Kure"

The hideous incident that you referred to, isn't it?

Yes.

Five months ago, Ichiro Kure a medical student,

on the night before his wedding,

strangled to death his cousin, Moyoko.

What do you mean?

You're not saying l...

Is it true, doctor?

You have to remember!

I'm not Ichiro Kure.

Why not?

He killed that Moyoko, right?

So she can't be the girl in #6. Therefore, I'm not Ichiro!

I see.

Right? No connection at all.

Does this scene jog a memory?

"Dr. Masaki's Laboratory"

That's Dr. Masaki's collection of specimens.

Please look at them.

Should one give you the slightest hint,

perhaps it will bring back your past.

Whatever's this?

That patient cut his own arm off...

with that knife, there.

And this?

He tried to poison his entire family. That cat was an ingredient.

What's this, sir?

A young university student wrote it in one session.

A kind of novel.

Extremely valuable in our research.

"Dogra Magra."

What's it mean?

A chant used by a secret christian sect in Nagasaki.

Preface.

O fetus, O fetus, why do you undulate?

Is it knowing mother's heart that fills you with dread?

It's quite bizarre.

Extremely so.

Modeled the story line on himself...

and wrote a mystery including Dr. Masaki and myself.

Reading it is enough to send one mad.

All jumbled, is it?

Not at all, it's carefully planned.

Sit yourself here and read for a spell.

No thanks.

This?

You found it.

That's Dr. Masaki.

The slide narration was his voice.

Pre-ordained, you finding his photograph.

Picking up the Dogra Magra novel.

Something's stimulated your deepest memories.

Something made you stand here.