Sleeping Bride
| Sleeping Bride | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Hideo Nakata |
| Written by |
Chiaki J. Konaka Osamu Tezuka (comic) |
| Starring |
Risa Goto Yuki Kohara |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Sleeping Bride (ガラスの脳 Garasu no Nō?, "Glass Brain") is a Japanese 2000 tragic-romance film directed by Hideo Nakata, based on a comic by Osamu Tezuka. It is probably best known to Western audiences for its inclusion in a Tartan Asia Extreme DVD release of the Ring trilogy, which included it as a fourth Nakata feature unrelated to the Ring series. It was released on January 29, 2000.
On March 13, 1954, a passenger plane crashes in Japan, killing all but one passenger: a woman who is nine months pregnant. Ultimately she dies in a hospital, but her unborn daughter is saved. However, for a reason inexplicable by the science of the day, the daughter (named Yumi) does not wake up and is essentially in a comatose state. Her wealthy father has her placed in a hospital where she will be cared for indefinitely (and also offers a reward to anyone who can wake her) while he vanishes in search of a cure to her condition.
Seven years later (March 25, 1961) Yuichi (a boy who is roughly seven himself) is admitted to the same hospital (with asthma) and discovers Yumi. After being told of her condition and then reading the story of Sleeping Beauty, he resolves to awaken Yumi by kissing her. Saying, "Wake up, I'm the prince," he kisses her on the lips. This has no effect, but Yuichi is undeterred, and makes a routine of this, even after he leaves the hospital, repeating the same line and kissing her. Although a nurse finds this "cute" and lets him continue, when Doctor Hikawa discovers his actions, he ejects Yuichi from the hospital, infuriated that Yuichi believes that he can awaken the girl, whom he himself could not awaken with all the powers of medical science.
For the next ten years Yuichi does not visit the hospital at all, until February 14, 1972 when he sees a new report on Yumi who, after 17 years, has still never awoken. Overcome by the memories of his childhood, Yuichi returns to the hospital, and although initially thwarted by a new (apparently American) nurse, he eventually resumes his ten-year-old routine, with similarly little results, although more genuine emotion. Doctor Hikawa – now a Director of the Hospital – gradually becomes aware of his actions.
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