Oyayubihime (Thumb Princess)

Oyayubihime
Genre Horror
Based on Thumbelina
by Hans Christian Andersen
Country of origin Japan
Original language(s) Japanese
Distributor TBS
Release
Original network TBS
Original release September 13 (1999-09-13) – October 4, 1999 (1999-10-04)

Oyayubihime (親ゆび姫 Thumb Princess) is a 1999 Japanese TV movie, which is a take on Thumbelina. Being a part of the Kowai Dōwa (コワイ童話 Scary Fairy Tales) series, the movie stars Chiaki Kuriyama.

Story

Saeko Machida is a high-school girl with a crush on a boy in her class named Yuichi Kimijima. Becoming obsessed with him, she tries to gain his attention and win his affections, but unsuccessfully. One day, she meets a strange man at a flea-market who gives her a red liquid, telling her that if she splashes it on Yuichi, her wish will become true. She acquires the liquid, certain that the liquid will cause Yuuichi to love her. Saeko finally gets the courage to confess her love to Yuichi, but he rejects her. Disappointed, she splashes the liquid on Yuichi, but that liquid actually causes him to shrink about three inches in height. She takes him home and desperately tries to get Yuichi to love her, but he still does not have feelings for her. Things will soon take a turn for the worse, when she realizes she can do whatever she wants as far as controlling him. He even attempted to run away, but failed. A group of girls at Saeko's school begin to grow suspicious of her new cheeriness. They send Aya Morimoto, Saeko's best friend, to find out in return for 500 yen. She stealthy follows her and hides in the stall next to Saeko in the bathroom and witnesses her with Yuichi tied up on her cell phone and threatens to flush him away if he's going to run away again. After hearing a noise, Saeko realizes that Aya knows the truth of his disappearance and chases after her. While trying to outrun her, Saeko caught Aya and spills the red liquid in order to prevent her from telling everyone about what happened to Yuichi. The next day, Saeko's classmate confronts her about Aya's disappearance at the girls' gym locker room. Saeko displays both her and Yuichi in the chain attached to her phone and threatens the girl to do the same if she told anyone her secret. Meanwhile, Yuichi tries to encourage Aya to stand up to her and seek help.

After Saeko returns home from school, Yuichi distracts her by convincing her to take him on a day alone. Their departure allows Aya to send a cry for help to her brother via email. While they are out, Saeko falls to the ground when the dog jumps at her, allowing Yuichi to escape. Failing to find him, she returns home and finds the email Aya sent. She catches Aya attempting to escape while hiding inside a paper-made Sumo wrestler and crushes her underfoot. She picks up Aya's corpse with a tissue and disposes her in the trash bin. Yuichi ends up in the hidden area near the tunnel filled with the colony of four small men inside. The next morning, Aya's brother visits Saeko and he is surprised to discover the sender's address is the same address Saeko has. He asked her about Aya's disappearance, but she's in denial. At the school, the girl tries desperately in vain to warn her friends as well as the school's staff about Saeko, but they don't believe her.

During his time in the colony, Yuichi discovers that the men has chosen to shrink themselves about three inches tall in order to avoid trouble with the law. He feels out of place and reveals to the group that he was shrunken by force because of Saeko's unrequited love for him. The men feel bad for Yuichi's plight and one man decides to take action but the other men tries to convince him not to get involved due to his drunken nature.

In the next scene, Aya's brother shows up with the police in Saeko's room to search for clues. During the investigation, officers uncover evidence such as Saeko's fan-like webpage containing facts about Yuichi, a dollhouse used as Yuichi's house, a knife used as torture, and a blood-stained shoe. The detective tries to console Saeko's disbelieving parents. Finally, an officer discovered a shrunken, crushed Aya in the trash can and shows the body to them. Saeko's parents faints upon realizing that their own daughter is now a murderer, and Aya's brother screams in horror.

When Saeko comes home, she finds her house being marked off with crime scene tape by the police officers investigating further and flees. Soon the neighbors begin to suspect her both in the disappearance of Yuichi and Aya's murder. Now a suspect on the run, Saeko is seen wearing a hat and is trying to keep a low profile. She observes a newspaper article that contains Aya's murder and discovery on the front page. Saeko also saw the same classmate that she threatened to shrink earlier on the TV displayed on the front window of the shop, giving details about her. At this point, the classmates believe the girl and also claims Saeko had a suspicious smile on her face. While sitting on the stairs near the tunnel, she cries out for Yuichi's help to save her from being arrested and finds a small man attempting to tie her shoe laces together. She used him to find Yuichi and discovers the colony of other small people he joined as refuge. Yuichi rejects Saeko's request to help her out and tells her off that she deserves what's coming to her. He also told her that he's happy being with the colony and that she's better off without him after all the mistreatment he endured in being shrunken against his will and torturing him along with Aya. Saeko leaves while the men cheer him on.

Alone and depressed, Saeko attempts suicide by throwing herself off the bridge into traffic, but is saved by the flea-market man. While talking to him, she realizes that nothing came out the way she wanted and it brought her more trouble. Saeko notes that Yuichi never loved her at all and includes Aya's death as a result of her actions that lead to her being suspected with murder. The flea-market man understands her pain and reveals that he hated women in general because women were made to love, but never to be loved. As part of her guilt, Saeko asks for the flea-market man for one last favor by letting her switch places with Yuichi since she should've been a lot happier watching him from afar rather than being obsessed with him. The man later talks to the leader of the small colony and asks him to let grow Yuichi back to normal. The leader refuses his request because while he trusts him, Yuichi's now part of the group. However, the flea-market man is able to convince him that Yuichi didn't eventually choose to be tiny and his family misses him. The flea-market man uses the blue liquid and grows him back to his normal size. Yuichi is jubilant and the man gives the now-shrunken Saeko to him. She apologized to Yuichi about her actions and he not only forgives her, but also told her that he loves her. They then walked out of a park to get new clothes for Saeko at the toy shop where Saeko bought a dollhouse earlier. The movie ends with the "End" sign displaying on the screen.

However, this is apparently not the real ending: a subsequent scene reveals Saeko inside a bird cage after being turned in to the authorities by Yuichi, who observes on the TV screen by the front window display of the shop. The TV shows her panicked and stressed out while surrounded by reporters and authorities. Yuichi walks away with a satisfied look on his face, knowing that Saeko will answer for her crimes.

Cast

Current condition

The movie is difficult to find, since it was only released on VHS, shortly before the era of DVD. Today it is out of print, and no longer for sale anywhere.

See also

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