Strange Circus 2005

Strange Circus guillotine setup

The master of ceremonies at Strange Circus offers the audience a chance to be placed in a guillotine. He presents Mitsuko, a young girl, and asks if she fears death. She answers that she has been destined to die from birth.

Mitsuko wakes from a nightmare

Twelve-year-old Mitsuko awakens in a panic and enters her parents' bedroom only to find them having sex. She is spotted by her father, Gozo, which compounds her sense of danger and vulnerability.

Cello-case trauma begins

The following night, Gozo locks Mitsuko in a cello case and coerces Sayuri into the scene, forcing her to watch Gozo have sex with Mitsuko. He then keeps Sayuri in the cello case to witness the act as well.

Sayuri's jealousy and abuse

After the incident, Sayuri becomes physically abusive toward Mitsuko out of jealousy, creating a volatile and terrifying home environment for the girl.

Fatal stairwell altercation

During a violent confrontation, Mitsuko fatally pushes Sayuri down the stairs, marking a brutal turning point in the child's life and her grasp on reality.

Mitsuko's breakdown and wheelchair

Sayuri dies, and Mitsuko's sanity begins to crater as she struggles to separate herself from her mother's identity. She attempts suicide by jumping from a roof, survives, and sustains injuries that leave her in a wheelchair.

Taeko's story frame and the red door

The events are revealed to be a story Taeko Mitsuzawa is writing, a reclusive paraplegic novelist. Her editor urges Taeko's assistant Yûji to investigate Taeko's life to uncover the truth behind her paralysis, and a mysterious red door in Taeko's apartment remains forever locked.

Taeko confesses identity

Taeko confides to Yûji that she is the 'Mitsuko' character and that the novel is a retelling of her abusive upbringing, blurring the line between author and subject.

Amputation twist in the narrative

When Yûji compares sexual abuse to losing limbs, Taeko decides to make Mitsuko an amputee at the end of the novel and agrees to make Gozo an amputee as well, altering the fates of the characters within the story.

Red door and cello-case food delivery

Behind the red door Taeko slips food through a peephole in the cello case. Yûji distracts her long enough to sneak into the room and orders her to return to her childhood home, intensifying the mystery around Taeko.

Return to the childhood home

Taeko returns with Yûji to a home identical to Mitsuko's childhood residence, and they ascend to an upstairs where a bloodied Gozo lies bound and missing his limbs, revealing a brutal past resurfacing.

Identity unravels: Taeko is Sayuri

It is revealed that Taeko is actually Sayuri, and that Mitsuko was the real survivor who endured the abuse and was placed into foster care. Sayuri is overwhelmed with guilt, repressed the memory, and comes to believe she herself is Mitsuko, even having pushed Gozo down the stairs to cause his wheelchair-bound state.

Sayuri becomes Taeko and seizes control

After finishing her first novel, Sayuri adopts the moniker Taeko, steals Gozo's wheelchair, and keeps him locked inside the cello case, further entwining the lives of the family with the fiction she writes.

Yûji's true identity surfaces

Yûji reveals himself to be an older Mitsuko who has undergone a sex change. He procures a chainsaw, planning to sever Taeko's limbs as a form of ultimate control over the narrative.