Soumatou Kabushikigaisha - Ep 7

I was getting a little worried that these episodic stories weren't going to be as good as episode one. There were a couple of episodes that were very predictable and unsurprising. But I actually like this episode. It has a surprisingly good story twist.

In this episode, the main protagonist of this story is Imaizumi Ysuhiko. He has just returned home from work. However, when he checks his mailbox, he receives a letter saying that he got fired from his job. He begins to worry about how he is going to tell this to his wife and kids.

When the whole family is eating dinner, there’s already a cold atmosphere among the family members. His wife senses that her husband is hiding something. So, Imaizumi decides to tell them that he got fired from his job. The wife begins to argue with him about how they are going to pay for all of their financial needs. His son starts to complain about how he’s going to pay for his studies on a Pharmaceutical test. His oldest daughter, Nana, is worried that she will never be able to study abroad. His youngest daughter, Junko, is angry that she will never be able to buy some nice clothes. His wife blames their messed up family’s future all on her husband.

Imaizumi begins to feel very guilty about this situation. So, he drinks and gets drunk. The entire family is there cleaning up after dinner.  The oldest son is gets concerned and tells his mother “what now? should we do it?” Imaizumi wants to know what they talking about. But he passes out before hearing an answer. 

The next day, he goes out to find a new job. But he comes across a building with a Soumatou Kabushikigaisha sign on a door. He goes in and meets Kaminuma. She explains to him that this is place where he can look back on life and watch his own life stored onto a disk. Although, Imaizumi still thinks that this is the part of getting a job. He watches Volume 38 of the disk, where he sees his son and daughter at a young age, playing in the playground. And, his wife is there as well, pregnant with their second daughter.  He reminisces this moment where his wife and kids were happy and enjoy their father’s company. But he wonders what happened to them now? They seem to be become grumpy and angry with their father.  

On  Volume 49 of the disk, he watches the part where he got drunk after telling his family that was fired.  He almost passes out, but he is still conscious. He overhears his oldest son saying that if he dies in an accident, they’ll be able to get insurance money. His mother agrees that with the death insurance, they’ll able to live comfortably for the next ten years. Then, Nana decides that they should kill their father. And, that if the whole family does it, then nobody will ever find out about it. Which make Imaizumi very shocked and disturbed of what he has just saw.

The next morning, he returns home. He looks at his son’s laptop and he notices that on the screen there’s a website that has information on how to murder someone in different ways. Such as, strangling, stabbing, and beating. But he gets interrupted by his son and he quickly closes the laptop’s lid and pretends that he didn’t see anything. 

 At dinner, Imaizumi hears a strange noise outside of his home. He asks his family whether or not they heard it. But they said they do not hear anything. In the middle of dinner, he gets up and goes outside. He uses this opportunity to take out a bottle of poison and he was about to ingest some it. (Since his family is planning to kill him, he decides to make it easier on them by killing himself.) But he quickly changes his mind. At the same time, there is a mysterious figure who comes up behind him and knocks him out.

The next day, he explains to a detective what had happened to him. His family savings are missing and his bankbook has been stolen. The detective concludes that this was a robbery. The rest of his family testified that none of them saw the face of the bugler and they were all at the dinner table during that time. 

Imaizami begins to doubt his family and thinks that maybe they are the ones who planned this. So, he goes back to the corporation to see if they really did it. Kaminuma explains to him that he can also see other people’s life on a disk, as long as it’s someone that they have a connection with. On the table, lies his whole family’s disk collection. He starts with his son’s life disk, the part where his son walks in on his father looking at his laptop. After his father leaves, Nana gets angry at him and thinks that their father has already figured out about their plans. 

However, Imaizami gets interrupted by his whole family entering the Soumatou Kabushikigaisha room. His wife tells him what he is doing in a place like this. But he asks the same question to them. The family thinks that this is some sort of hotel. His wife thinks that he is hiding something and nothing good will come from hiding things. (Well, I can say the same thing to you as well.) His son notices the collection of DVDs and wants to know what it is. Kaminuma explains to them about the disks, while Imaizami puts the poison in his cup of water.  

The son puts his own disk to the DVD player and he is shocked to what he sees. He gets really upset with his father. But Imaizami suggests that he should continue to watch it. And, he confronts his family that he knows everything. So, he proceeds to play the DVD.  They watch a scene where the son opens up his laptop to the murder site. His sister says to him that he has such weird hobbies. But he opens up another website where he was planning to order a set of neck ties for his father’s present. Nana comes by and she has made a drawing of her father to give to him. 

Imaizumi gets a phone call from the detective saying that they have caught the robber and wants him to come to the police station to confirm his identity.  He tells this news to his wife. However, he sees her holding a glass of water in her hand and she is about to drink it. He recalls that he put the poison in that cup. He runs toward her to stop her. But in the next scene, Kaminuma stands outside of the door and hears a shattered glass.  

Thoughts: Phew, for a moment there, I really thought that this family was really messed up. But I think that the father misunderstood them. His family probably had a macabre sense of humor and the killing part was all part of an inside joke that the family shared without him knowing. 

I think that the ending can be interpreted either a good or bad ending. I personally like to believe that it was a good ending. I mean, it doesn’t show the mother actually drinks the cup of poison. All I saw was a glass cup shattered on the floor. So, I’m assuming that Imaizumi manages to stop his wife by pushing the cup out of her hands and it fell on the floor. Or, you can look it as a bad ending. The shattered glass on the floor means that she drank it.