The movie "The Summit of the Gods" is so poignant. The original work is a novel by Baku Yumemakura, and the manga version is by Jiro Taniguchi.
While covering a story in Nepal, a photographer named Fukamachi discovers an old camera from over 50 years ago in an antique shop. That camera was a keepsake of George Mallory, the legendary mountaineer who, when asked "Why do you climb mountains?", famously replied, "Because it's there." Mallory had aimed for the summit of Everest, which was unscaled at the time, and never returned. However, there is a theory that Mallory might have reached the summit of Everest before he perished in the disaster. If there is a "photo of the summit of Everest" inside Mallory's camera, it would mean that Mallory was the first human to climb Everest.
Fukamachi checks the inside of the camera, but unfortunately, there is no film inside. So, Fukamachi goes to meet the person who found the camera to ask about the whereabouts of the film. The finder had spotted the camera, but didn't know where the film was. In other words, the film is probably still sleeping somewhere on Everest. At that moment, Fukamachi realizes the true identity of the finder. The finder wasn't Nepalese; he was a famous Japanese mountaineer named Habu.
Habu possessed inhuman mountaineering sense and superhuman mental strength. However, because he was ambitious, he had a difficult personality, and was known for openly saying things like, "Companions during a climb are nothing more than baggage carriers," and "If a companion is dying, I'd abandon them." Because of this, when he actually lost his partner during a climb, rumors spread that he had "let his partner die," making him a controversial figure whose infamy was known alongside his fame.
Several years prior, Habu had challenged Everest, but went missing in a blizzard and was presumed dead. However, he had miraculously been rescued by locals, and instead of returning to Japan, he had effectively renounced his Japanese citizenship and naturalized locally. Habu's goal was to keep challenging Everest. What's more, he sought to achieve the unprecedented feat of scaling it "solo," "without supplemental oxygen (with extremely light equipment)," and via the "shortest route."
The "truth behind the first person to summit Everest" and an "unprecedented challenge"—these two things could be a huge scoop. Fukamachi decides to do close-up coverage on Habu while searching for Mallory's film, and follows Habu up Everest. However, Fukamachi is injured by a falling rock to the head and nearly dies, but is saved by Habu. That night, the two talk in a tent, and Habu's hidden, tragic past (the truth behind the accident where he lost his partner) is revealed. However, because the route Habu was attempting was an unprecedented sheer cliff, and due to his head injury, Fukamachi gives up on accompanying him and descends the mountain halfway.
Looking back as he descended, Fukamachi saw Habu's heroic figure climbing the sheer cliff with only an ice axe, without pitons or ropes, and he watched the mountain's weather rapidly turn into a blizzard. In the end, Habu never came back down, and it seemed he had truly become a man who would never return.
After returning to Japan, Fukamachi spent gloomy days for a while, but eventually crossed over to Nepal again and challenged Everest just like Habu had. It was a grueling path, but he made it close to the summit. There, Fukamachi discovered Habu's cold body.
Beside Habu's hand was a notebook containing his final words: "If your legs won't move, advance with your hands." "If your hands won't move, bite the snow with your teeth and advance." "If your teeth are no good, advance with your eyes. Advance while glaring with your eyes." "If even your eyes are no good and you truly cannot move, think." "Yearn."
The notebook also stated that Habu had successfully summited Everest. "I see, you achieved it, didn't you?" Fukamachi says to Habu's corpse. Then, whether it was an auditory hallucination or Habu's ghost, Habu's voice spoke to Fukamachi: "Yes." "And here is what you were looking for." When Fukamachi looked in the direction Habu indicated, there lay the body of George Mallory. "The film is right there." However, Fukamachi says, "Things like that don't matter anymore." "I'm taking you back. Let's go home together, Habu." As Fukamachi descended the mountain carrying Habu, he kept single-mindedly repeating the poem from Habu's notebook in his mind. "Think. Yearn."
***
Many readers wonder what is so unsettling about this ending. Some might argue, "No, no, it's not a disturbing story, it's a poignant one—you're just missing the point of the thread..."
However, the unsettling nature lies in this: What he brought back was: "A journal of 'subjective' success by an ambitious man with a difficult personality." What he left behind was: "The film that might have 'objectively' proven the world's first ascent."
Exactly. Whether Habu actually succeeded in his summit is only written in his journal, and is nothing more than Habu's own self-reported claim. It's entirely possible it was just an illusion born of Habu's "yearning," leaving the absolute truth shrouded in mystery.
To reduce the weight of his luggage to the absolute limit, Habu had torn off the cardboard cover of his notebook, cut his pencil in half, and even pared down his rations before setting out (though it probably only saved a few grams, it borderlined on madness). Given that kind of obsession, he definitely hadn't brought a camera along.
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