Masayuki and Shinji are twin brothers. One day, when they were very young,
Masayuki called Shinji in the garden. He told him to look into the room. They saw a strange
woman crying there. Big white flowers were blooming in the garden.
Even though they were twins, Masayuki was called the first son and he behaved as if he
was the elder brother. He was very nice to Shinji. One day, Shinji was crying because
he had to leave his family to be an adopted child of another family. Masayuki said
"If you don't want to go, I'll go instead of you." "Really?" said Shinji. A tall man
took Masayuki somewhere very far.
Shinji is a junior highschool student now. He goes to watch the first preliminaries of
a junior highschool students' piano competition with Mr. Andou, who is a music teacher
in his school. After the preliminaries, he talks with Masayuki. They met two years ago
for the first time after Masayuki was adopted. Shinji listened to Masayuki playing the
piano and was very impressed because Masayuki was an excellent pianist.
Shinji: I'm jealous of you. Even though I said I wanted to learn how to play the
piano, my parents didn't allow me to do that.
Masayuki: There's a piano in your house. You can practice by yourself.
Shinji: We don't have a piano.
Masayuki: Yes, you do. There was a piano in the room with a big window.
I remember lilies were blooming near the room.
Returning home, Shiji asks his grandmother if there were lilies in the garden.
Grandmother remembers there were lilies. Shinji asks if there used to be a piano
in his house. Grandmother says there wasn't a piano.
In the dream, Shinji hears someone playing Chopin's nocturne.
The next day, Shiji meets Masayuki. Masayuki says he will be playing Chopin's nocturne
at the second preliminaries. Shinji takes Masayuki to Shinji's house
because all the other family members are out. Masayuki says he remembers he looked into
the room through the window with Shinji. " A strange woman was crying and there was a
piano beside her." says Masayuki. "I don't remember that." says Shinji. "We were standing
in the lilies. Mother got upset because our clothes were damaged by pollen." says Masayuki.
When Masayuki is coming out of the house, Grandmother sees him. She wonders why Shinji is
wearing glasses at first, but she soon recognizes Masayuki.
Masayuki passes the second preliminaries but Shinji is sure Masayuki has
some problem. Even though Masayuki will be playing Polonaise Heroica at the final
competition, his arm has an inflammation of a tendon sheath. Masayuki has no
intention of giving up playing at the competition. He has practiced years for the
competition.
Grandmother sees Shinji crying in the dark.
Grandmother: How silly it is that a boy is crying here alone!
Shinji: Masayuki was adopted instead of me because I didn't want to.
Grandmother: You're wrong. We had asked the Sasanos to adopt Masayuki.
Shinji: Masayuki is the first son! It's far more natural that the second son
being adopted.
Grandmother: We will tell you why when you've grown up. Did Masakuki tell you anything?
Shinji: Nothing particulary, except that there's a piano in our house.
That evening, Shinji hears Grandmother and his parents talking. They say Aunt Kyouko
commit suicide. Grandmother says Shinji mustn't have remembered the piano because it
was hidden immediately after Kyouko died. Shinji is scared. He wonders why the piano was
hidden, why Aunt Kyouko commit suicide. Then he hears the sound of piano. He looks back
and sees a woman playing the piano.
The next morning, Grandmother tells him she has something to tell him.
Shinji: Masayuki is going to play the piano at a competition.
Grandmother: Does he play the piano?
Masayuki wonders if he saw a woman playing the piano in the dream.
Masayuki seems to have a lot of pain in his arm. He says he remembers
crying because he didn't want to be adopted by the Sasanos.
Masayuki:You said you would be an adopted child because I was crying.
I said to you "Really?", but Mother came to take me soon after that.
Shinji: No, it was me that was crying. You said you would be an adopted child.
Masayuki: No, it was me that was crying. It was decided that I was to be adopted.
Shinji wonders when his memory changed. In his memory, the same face as his has
been crying.
Mr. Andou finds out that Shinji has played the piano instead of Masayuki
at the final competition. Shinji and Masayuki escape from the theatre and
go to the city hall to see Shinji's family registry. Shinji thinks he might
be the first son. The family registry says Shinji is the first son, and he is
an adopted child.
Mr. Andou visits Shinji's house. He tells Shinji's grandmother and parents that
Shinji played the piano at the competion instead of Masayuki.
Grandmother: That's absurd! He can't play the piano.
Andou: Don't you know that I've taught him how to play for two years?
He has progressed remarkably fast. He says he has a friend who is an
excellent pianist and he can learn how to play if he sees the friend
playing the piano. The friend must be Masayuki.
Grandmother goes into the room with a big window and finds Shinji and Masayuki there.
Shinji shows her a photo. A young woman with a bouquet of lilies and Grandmother
are smiling in front of a grand piano in the photo.
Shinji: Grandmother, am I Shinji or Masayuki? Who is the woman in the photo?
Grandmother: This is Kyouko. She is your mother. She was a pianist. She fell in a slump
and got sick. She commit suicide when you were one year old.
Grandmother asks Mr. Andou and Shinji's parents to move some furniture. A piano appears
in a closet. Grandmother says Kyouko practiced with the piano when she was a child. Grandmother
begins to play the piano. Masayuki says to Shinji "There's someone near the piano."
Shinji sees someone standing behind Grandmother.
Grandmother starts telling to them. She was a piano teacher. She was very eager to
make Kyouko a famous pianist. Kyouko thought she was worthless if she wasn't a pianist.
Even though she married Mr. Sasano, she wasn't a good wife. She came back to her mother's
house to give birth to Masayuki and Shinji, and she never went back to her husband's place.
She had a trouble with her fingers and got neurotic. She ended up taking sleeping pills
to kill herself. Grandmother thought it was her fault that Kyouko bacame such a person.
She dicided she wouldn't involve in anything related to piano. Her son and his wife had no
children, so they adopted Shinji as their son, and gave Masayuki back to Mr. Sasano.
Grandmother tells Shinji to play Kyouko's piano from now on.
Mr. Sasano is a piano tuner. He is going to visit Shinji's house to tune Kyouko's piano.
Masayuki says "Father said our late mother said she would make her kids learn
how to play the piano."