TITLE: Tales of the Unusual: Saigo no Hitotoki (The Final Moment)
This is one of the segments from "Tales of the Unusual: Spring Special" broadcast on March 29, 2004.
Starring Hiromi Nagasaku.
The protagonist, Yayoi Suzuki (played by Hiromi Nagasaku), boards a mysterious bus with its destination listed as "Sainokawara" (the Buddhist underworld riverbank for children).
The other passengers on the bus are a married couple, a grandmother and her grandson, a punk, a water purifier salesman, a detective, and the driver.
Eventually, the bus departs and drives along a winding mountain road. Just as the driver turns the wheel for a certain curve, a parked car fixing a flat tire suddenly appears in the middle of the road.
Panicked, the driver swerves and smashes through the guardrail. Screams echo through the cabin. The view of the valley fills the windshield. However, for a while, nothing happens. The passengers open their eyes with trepidation, only to find…
At that exact moment, time has stopped, leaving the bus suspended in mid-air.
~ From here, the camera stays entirely inside the bus ~
Everyone on the bus is shocked to find themselves floating in mid-air.
Then, the detective explains, "Right before humans die, adrenaline or something makes it look like time has stopped." Everyone accepts this explanation.
Next, the water purifier salesman laments that he wanted to sell a water purifier before dying. Upon hearing this, Nagasaku's character says she will buy one, takes a large stack of bills from her bag, and hands 750,000 yen (?) to the salesman. The salesman is overjoyed.
Seeing this, Nagasaku thinks it's ridiculous.
Just as she wonders what will happen next, the wife says that rather than waiting around to die, she'd rather jump out the window right now.
Nagasaku tells her, "Go ahead and jump, then."
The husband stops his wife, who is about to jump.
"If we die, we die together." A sense of love blossoms between the couple.
Nagasaku is completely exasperated, thinking, "Emotional drama is fine, but do you people even realize the situation you're in?"
Next, the detective says, "Before dying, I wanted to catch a criminal whose statute of limitations expires in three days."
The detective pulls out a photo of the culprit. To everyone's surprise, the person in the photo is the bus driver.
However, instead of putting handcuffs on the criminal, the detective says, "I've seen all sorts of villains in my life, but you're different. I can tell how much you've struggled up until now."
The criminal replies, "I'm sorry. I was actually on my way to turn myself in."
Amidst all this, a warm connection also blossoms between the criminal and the detective.
Nagasaku mocks the scene, saying, "If I'm going to watch a tear-jerking melodrama in a place like this, I might as well throw down a tip."
Next, the grandmother speaks up: "Before I die, I wanted to see my grandson stand on his own."
Apparently, the grandson has a leg illness.
Hearing this, the grandson says, "It's not like my life is worth living anyway." In response, Nagasaku blurts out, "I was originally planning to commit suicide anyway," and offers a lethal drug to the grandson.
Then the punk snaps at the grandson, shouting, "It pisses me off looking at guys like you!" Apparently, the punk's younger brother had practiced desperately to make it to the Koshien baseball tournament before dying in an accident.
"It's your fault for raising such a brat!" the punk yells, and moves to punch the grandmother.
At that moment, the grandson stands up, shouting, "Don't pick on my grandma!!"
Miraculously, the grandson stood up.
Everyone is in an uproar. The punk is delighted that the grandson was able to stand.
The punk had intentionally provoked the grandmother just to force the grandson to stand up.
A friendship has now blossomed between the punk and the grandson.
Nagasaku still thinks this is all ridiculous.
Nagasaku had embezzled money from her company, causing trouble for everyone there.
And she had been planning to commit suicide.
However, seeing Nagasaku like this, everyone suddenly starts saying "Thank you" to her.
Nagasaku asks, "Why are you all acting like saints?"
Yet, everyone tells Nagasaku, "Thank you. Because of you…"
Touched by such kindness for the first time, Nagasaku begins to open her heart.
Just then, the frozen time starts moving again.
Nagasaku: "We're… going to heaven, aren't we?"
Everyone on the bus is supposed to go to heaven with no regrets left… or so it seemed.
The bus falls off the cliff, but every single person inside is unharmed.
"It looks like… we survived."
Instantly, chaos erupts inside the bus.
Nagasaku demands the salesman return her 750,000 yen.
The detective arrests the criminal, the married couple starts fighting, and the punk, grandson, and grandmother begin hurling insults at each other.
Nagasaku says, "What is wrong with all of you…?"
At that moment, a handgun tumbles out onto the large pile of embezzled money inside Nagasaku's bag. Everyone gasps in shock.
That instant, a gunshot echoes through the bus…
※ Interpretations are divided as to what the final gunshot meant.