to the nearest phone.
This is a routine
work-related announcement:
Dr. Ohmura, the pot-boiled noodle
you ordered is here.
Please eat it before it gets cold.
The same, familiar studio.
The same sight.
And the same faces.
Yet, something was different.
This is a routine
work-related announcement:
After 2:00 p. M...
...the central elevator may be used for
the transportation of dead bodies only.
The situation couldn't
have been any worse.
The work continued to stagnate.
The staff members were dropping off
because of the mysterious serial killer.
And, hiding something important...
...Tamiko, my assistant, was probably
keeping a watch over me.
And, it's possible...
...because of his obsession
with the production...
...Handawara came back as a zombie.
With those two as my team, I had to
complete the unidentifiable movie.
You pushed the plot forward this time.
It'll be hard putting them together.
There's no such thing in a movie
as a cut that can't be connected.
As long as you have this.
Unlooked-for intruders
and unexpected cuts.
With the ability to swallow them all,
a movie can be an incomplete system.
What's important isn't a
narrative consistency between cuts...
...that are connected together.
It's what sort of relationship
you can discover between the cuts.
Isn't that so?
Shall we start?
An unfinished movie left behind
by a director who disappeared.
A series of murders takes place
following the disappearance.
By identifying the murderer
and presenting his motives...
...all the mysteries are solved.
I put them together based on
that pedestrian plot for a start.
I don't know about that.
We've been freewheeling wildly until now.
An ordinary ending is impossible,
I should think.
Hey, don't tell me you're going
to start using deconstruction...
...and metafiction
and all that postmodern stuff.
Sorry, but that seems to be the case.
Think about it.
What was the proposition given to
the now-dead crew by my predecessor?
"An absent character."
A movie that is the story.
A game for which
you make rules as you go along.
Yes, something does stink pretty badly.
L-I took this job 'cause
I heard it was an entertaining film.
But the very person who
set up this whole thing is absent.
Give it up and redo it.
First of all, is this really
a serial killer case?
We can start from there.
We have to go back that far?
Look behind you.
A man who died once is still
taking a part in the story as a zombie.
How can you be sure that
other guys aren't behind my back...
...having midnight tea parties?
Perhaps with Kobayashi here?
A death of a character in a movie...
...is nothing more than
an agreement made for the story.
It could be breached at any time.
Disguise, proxy, illusion.
If one wants to, it's possible to play
hardball and bring him back as a cyborg.
As long as things are progressing
outside the boundary of realism...
...it's dangerous to set absolutes
on past developments as fixed facts.
Oh, boy.
Hello, cutting room.
Yes.
Yes, thank you.
Tahara and Handa are on the way here
to pick up the rushes.
Should we take a coffee break?
The rich aroma that
forcibly interrupts the story.
The deep taste that makes
even a zombie's eyes pop out.
When you are tired of a confused story.
For you, who know the difference,
try Dog Blend.
What ajoke.
Human beings being bossed around
by a zombie like that.
We can't let that creep work
as the chief of this movie!
I'll show them.
Soon, I will, by my own hands...
I mean, if you think of the seniority list,
the next chief is, you know...
Oh, but I'm not...
I'm not...
I'm not...
When the day that
I become the chief dawns...
...I will first throw out thatjerk
of a migrant tech director.
Hey, the light!
On March 14, 1932, an American,
George Eastman, acknowledged his wishes...
...about the disposal of his property
in the presence of his lawyer.
Shortly after the lawyer left,
he shot himself to death.