"Zoroark."
Late at night, Edward knocked on Zoroark's door.
After a short while, Zoroark finally opened the door. At that moment, it had transformed into a beautiful young woman with long straight black hair. Her pajamas were loosely draped over her body, and she wore a pair of fluffy slippers on her feet.
"Boss, yawn… why are you looking for me this late at night? Are you planning a midnight assault?" Zoroark yawned as it looked at Edward, rubbing its sleepy eyes.
"No, I've been experimenting with a new type of cube candy recently. Want to give it a try?" Edward pulled a cube-shaped candy out of his pocket and waved it in front of Zoroark's face. Zoroark blinked in confusion.
Seeing Zoroark's puzzled reaction, Edward looked at it with anticipation.
When he had fed the cube candies to Q and Gholdengo earlier, Edward had already come up with an idea.
If he wanted to test whether Zoroark was truly a Ghost-type Pokémon, he just needed to bring out the fear candy—a substance with a fatal allure for Ghost-type Pokémon. Even apex Gengar and the Giratina from the Reverse World found it hard to resist this candy.
If not for the fact that Giratina had once stolen his fear cube candies, Edward wouldn't even have brought the Fear Sustenance Creator to the Paldea region.
"What kind of candy is this?" Zoroark asked curiously as it looked at the cube in Edward's hand. Although it showed some interest, there was no sign of any excitement or obsession.
"I made it for Q and Gholdengo. They both really liked it." Edward scratched his head when he saw Zoroark's calm expression. Could it be he had guessed wrong?
"I'm Zoroark, remember? And you're offering me candy made for Ghost-types?" Zoroark gave Edward a strange look, waved its hand dismissively, and then yawned again as it shut the door to go back to sleep.
Staring at Zoroark's closed door, Edward reflected on something he had come across earlier while lying in bed scrolling through his phone. He had stumbled upon a news piece about Hisui, which reminded him of something important.
In the Hisui region, there were regional variants of some Pokémon—and Hisuian Zoroark happened to be a Ghost-type.
But given that this Zoroark showed no interest in the fear candy, Edward figured he must have been mistaken.
The next day, after a good night's sleep, Edward resumed filming One Missed Call and continued fine-tuning the script as he went.
One of the story elements he particularly liked was the characterization of Mizuno Mimiko.
Most horror films tend to give their antagonists a tragic backstory or childhood trauma, as if such experiences justify their evil actions. In One Missed Call, Mizuno Mimiko followed a similar pattern.
Mimiko was born with asthma, and her mother paid little attention to her. As a result, she would abuse her younger sister in order to gain her mother's attention. Then she would pretend to be pitiful to elicit sympathy from her mother. But whenever her mother left, she'd go right back to bullying her sister.
After hurting her sister, perhaps out of guilt—or some other emotion—Mimiko would place a piece of candy into her sister's mouth as compensation. That's also why the people killed in One Missed Call were always found with a piece of candy in their mouths.
If she hadn't given her sister candy, hadn't wanted her mother's attention, and had merely hurt her sister for fun, then Mimiko would have been nothing more than a born sadist.
Unfortunately, the screenwriters couldn't quite break free from this cliché setup at the time.
Still, One Missed Call managed a plot twist, which Edward admired. Early on, based on the clues presented, everyone—including the audience—would assume that Mimiko's mother was the culprit, that she was the evil spirit behind everything.
But in the end, the twist revealed that it was Mimiko herself, not her mother, who was responsible for all the horrors. She was the one suffering from Munchausen Syndrome—a psychological disorder that compels individuals to harm their relatives in order to gain attention and sympathy.
"Boss, I don't quite get the ending of this script."
During their lunch break, Zoroark walked up to Edward with the script in hand, a look of confusion on its face.
"Isn't it obvious?" Edward glanced at the page Zoroark was pointing to—the ending.
In the story, the climax reveals that Mimiko possesses Yumi's body and stabs Yamashita, the man who had been helping Yumi all along.
Then, when Yamashita wakes up in the hospital, he finds Yumi sitting by his bedside. She leans in to kiss him—but it's actually a mouth-to-mouth transfer of a candy. Meanwhile, she's holding a knife behind her back.
The movie ends with Yumi's unsettling laughter echoing through the final scene.
"So, Mimiko ended up taking control of Yumi? But then why does Yamashita rescue Mimiko when he's unconscious? Was he somehow sent back in time to save her?" Zoroark was genuinely puzzled by this piece of the story.
"That scene was just meant to show that Yamashita is a good person—he couldn't bear the thought of Mimiko dying miserably alone at home. But in reality, there's no time travel involved. That whole scene was more symbolic than literal. The act of feeding him candy represents Mimiko's twisted prayer that he recovers quickly—so she can resume torturing him." Edward explained.
This part of the plot is where viewers tend to argue the most, because it seems disjointed and cryptic—though that's not uncommon in Japanese horror films.
But once you understand that Mimiko is someone suffering from Munchausen Syndrome—a psychological illness where one seeks attention by harming close relatives—then everything starts to make sense.
In the film, Mimiko's younger sister even states that every time her sister hurt her, she would feed her a candy afterward and pray for her to get better—so she could hurt her again.
"So, what was the point of Yamashita rescuing Mimiko, then?" Zoroark was still struggling to grasp the message.
Previously, it had assumed the movie would have a happy ending, perhaps with Yamashita moving the ghost with his kindness and the spirit choosing to let go, allowing Yamashita and Yumi to live happily ever after.
"The point is that Mimiko found a new toy—a kind-hearted toy who isn't easy to kill." Edward shrugged.
Mimiko is a villain, yes, but she's also a mental patient—and that's a critical distinction.
People like that don't operate based on logic.
Trying to change Mimiko's heart or persuade her to let go is impossible. She's simply become fascinated with someone like Yamashita, who is so good-natured and full of warmth, and she wants to torment him until he completely breaks.
"Oh my god—can something like this even pass censorship?" Zoroark was visibly concerned, especially given Mimiko's young age.
"That's why, at the end, Yumi is only shown smiling. Even though she's holding a knife, she doesn't actually do anything." Edward wasn't particularly worried. He had already made all the necessary adjustments to ensure the film passed the censors.
Otherwise, he would've designed a much darker ending—like having Yumi feed Yamashita the candy and then immediately stabbing him, fully showcasing the madness of the spirit.
(End of Chapter)