Erased (2016 film)

Boku Dake ga Inai Machi
Poster
僕だけがいない街
Directed by	Yūichirō Hirakawa
Written by	Noriko Gotō
Based on	Boku Dake ga Inai Machi by Kei Sanbe
Starring	Tatsuya Fujiwara
Music by	Yuki Hayashi
Production company	Warner Bros.
Distributed by	Warner Bros.[1]
Release dates	March 19, 2016 (2016-03-19)
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (僕だけがいない街) is a 2016 Japanese thriller fantasy mystery film adaptation of the manga series of the same name featuring Tatsuya Fujiwara as Satoru Fujinuma. It premiered in cinemas throughout Japan on March 19, 2016.^[2] The theme song is "Hear ~Shinjiaeta Akashi~" (Hear 〜信じあえた証〜, lit. Hear ~A proof that you could trust~) by Chise Kanna.^[3] The trailer was released on 14 January 2016.^[4]

Plot

The film begins in 2006 with Satoru Fujinuma, an aspiring manga writer who has his manga once again rejected by his publisher, forcing him to continue working as a deliveryman to support himself. Satoru has the ability to "Rewind", in which he is sent back to a point in the near past to prevent a person around him from enduring a fatal accident. One day, Satoru's mother, Sachiko, stays with him for the weekend. While the two are outside, Sachiko senses a man about to abduct a girl and makes Satoru remember a tragedy that happened 19 years before. Sachiko passes this information to a friend of hers, but when she is alone in Satoru's apartment, she is murdered. Satoru unsuccessfully gives chase to the killer; before he is captured by the police, who accuse him of Sachiko's murder. Satoru's Rewind activates and, to his surprise, he is sent 19 years into the past, back to his elementary school life in Hokkaido.

Trying to adjust to his "new" life, Satoru remembers that his Rewind comes around after the murder of Kayo Hinazuki, a classmate of his, by a child serial killer, whose identity is placed to that of Jun Shiratori, even though Satoru does not believe that. He befriends the quiet and friendless Kayo, learning that she lives with an abusive mother, Akemi, and stepfather. With his friends and Sachiko's help, Satoru manages to convince Kayo to attend a double birthday party, as the two children are revealed to have the same birthday. Despite these changes, Kayo is still murdered, and in frustration, Satoru is sent back to the present.

Still evading the police, Satoru seeks refuge in the house of Airi Katagiri, a high school student who works as a fellow part-time deliveryman. Satoru realizes that though Kayo's death still occurred, its details have changed somewhat. Believing that Satoru is wrongly blamed, Airi helps him track down Sachiko's killer. However, this only puts her in danger when her house is burned down in an arson attack, though she still attempts to help Satoru by escaping from hospital, unaware that the police are following her. Meanwhile, Satoru meets with Sachiko's friend whom she contacted earlier, Makoto Sawada, who confirms that Sachiko's killer and the child serial killer are the same person. He reunites with Airi afterward, but this only causes him to be captured by the police. Noticing one of his captors as the killer, Satoru's Rewind activates and he is once again sent to 19 years before.

To prevent Kayo from being alone, Satoru "kidnaps" her by taking her to live away from her mother. He and his friend Kenya Kobayashi first place her in an abandoned van, but when they learn that the van is the child killer's hideout, they move her to live in the Fujinuma residence. Satoru's teacher, Gaku Yashiro, contacts the child abuse prevention center, who takes Kayo custody after enough evidence of Akemi's abuse is revealed. Still convinced that he needs to prevent more murders from happening, Satoru watches over another quiet classmate, Misato Yanagihara, during an ice hockey competition, but she quickly leaves, while Satoru is given a ride home by Yashiro. Recounting the evidence, Satoru eventually realizes that Yashiro is the killer and has deliberately placed Misato as a decoy. To prevent Satoru from interfering again, Yashiro throws him down a river.

Satoru is sent back to 2006, this time to a timeline where both Sachiko and Kayo, who is now pregnant, are alive, where he is no longer estranged from his childhood friends, and where his manga is successfully published; at the same time, however, Airi does not recognize him, as he does not work as a deliveryman in the new timeline. The lawyer Kenya helps him track down Yashiro, who now works as a councilman. Having a face-to-face meeting, Yashiro tells Satoru his demented motive of killing: he kills to prevent the children from having a bleak future. Just when he is about to commit suicide, Satoru stops him, causing himself to get mortally wounded instead, while Yashiro is arrested.

Ten years later, Sachiko holds a decennial anniversary of Satoru's death, attended by Kayo, her daughter, Kenya, and the others, while Airi, now a photographer, finishes reading Satoru's manga, Boku Dake ga Inai Machi.

Cast

• Tatsuya Fujiwara as Satoru Fujinuma (adult)
  • Tsubasa Nakagawa as Satoru Fujinuma (child)
• Kasumi Arimura as Airi Katagiri
• Rio Suzuki as Kayo Hinazuki (child)
  • Kanna Mori as Kayo Hinazuki (adult)
• Kento Hayashi as Jun Shiratori
• Seiji Fukushi as Kenya Kobayashi
• Tamae Andō as Akemi Hinazuki
• Yasushi Fuchikami as Sudō
• Tsutomu Takahashi as Takahashi
• Mitsuhiro Oikawa as Gaku Yashiro
• Tetta Sugimoto as Makoto Sawada
• Yuriko Ishida as Sachiko Fujinuma

References

External links

• Official website
• Erased at the Internet Movie Database