A Pale View Of Hills Movie Recap And Ending Explained: Is Keiko Dead?

Something is soothing and simultaneously baffling about movies that appear simple at first, but as you move forward, you start seeing the layers of complexities. Even if the idea seems black and white on paper, gradually, these movies eventually reveal how deep the grey roots of their plots go. Director Kei Ishikawa’s “A Pale View of Hills” is one such movie that leaves you intrigued till the very end, and after it concludes, you are destined to stay confused about what actually happened. When I watched the Japanese film, it felt like a perfect slow-burning mystery plot. It is also the perfect adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel where the director shines bright above the haunting plot with her storytelling.

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens in the Movie?

Set in the 1980s, “A Pale View of Hills” begins with an elderly woman, Etsuko, relaxing in her room at night.  Her daughter, Niki, who leaves with her, rummages through her mother’s belongings and finds Etsuko’s old photographs. The photo also has glimpses of a war-torn Nagasaki trying its best to rise above the destruction and being rebuilt. Niki being an aspiring journalist, she is immediately intrigued by the photographs. She asks Etsuko about them, and that’s when you notice a strange reaction in the elderly woman’s eyes. She is not ready to share the memories with her daughter, for some reason. After their dull interaction dies down, we see Niki helping her mother to arrange things as Etsuko has put her house up for sale.  She wants to leave some money for her daughter, who is struggling with her professional life.

Although she brushes off her daughter’s burning questions, Niki takes out a tape recorder and gets ready to record her mother’s memories from Nagasaki. She wants to write an article on the war-torn Nagasaki from a survivor’s eye. Niki a also wants to construct a memoir of her family and know more about her sister Keiko’s suicide. As Etsuko starts to tell her story, the movie takes us back to 1950s Nagasaki, where the city is slowly being rebuilt after the horrors of World War II. It shows a young Etsuko living in a housing complex with her husband, Jiro. Jiro is a former soldier who now works day and night. Etsuko is expecting her first child, and the couple appears quite excited for the arrival of a new life. Meanwhile, Jiro’s father, Ogata, comes to stay in their home.

One day, Etsuko comes across a little girl, Mariko, who drives away three boys while protecting a pregnant cat. She strikes up a conversation with her, and soon, Etsuko meets with her mother, Sachiko. Sachiko is a single mom who lives in a humble house in the valley, away from the din and bustle of the main thoroughfare. Both Mariko and Sachiko are carrying traces of radiation from the atomic bomb in their bodies; the burn scar on the little girl’s hand is living proof of that. Sachiko reveals to Etsuko that she wishes to leave Nagasaki and settle in America with Frank, a white US soldier. Her wish touches reality as Sachiko starts to pack her bags. As an older Etsuko keeps narrating her memories from her England home, some stark inconsistencies start to appear in her story.

What Is the Truth Behind Sachiko and Etsuko’s Relationship?

Etsuko appears as someone who is holding back a lot of memories from spilling out at the wrong time. In 1952’s Nagasaki, she quickly becomes friends with Sachiko—it feels as if Etsuko gets a fresh breath of life when she comes in touch with her. Soon, Etsuko helps Sachiko out by getting her a job at a local udon noodle bar. Etsuko, Sachiko, and Mariko also go out together. When a boy blames Mariko for pushing him down, Etsuko stands firmly by her side. She takes Sachiko and Mariko to the fair, buys Mariko tickets for the shooting game and also gets the little girl a wooden yellow box to keep the newborn kittens. 

Things, however, are not as simple as they look. The film keeps some parts of the story ambiguous but still provides some strong hints towards a bigger twist in the tale. Sachiko never existed in reality—her whole character and persona are just Etsuko’s projection of herself. It becomes crystal clear the moment you see how Sachiko behaves harshly towards Mariko. Etsuko is not describing a friend; she is describing a version of herself that she sees in her mind. Sachiko speaks out thoughts that Etsuko can never admit out loud, not even in front of Jiro or Niki. Through her existence, Sachiko acts out the fears, desires, and insecurities that Etsuko can only dream of. She carries the burden of Etsuko’s forbidden thoughts in a safe manner. 

Sachiko talks about leaving Japan and does not care about Mariko’s feelings. She justifies her choice by taking refuge under the idea that America holds more possibilities for Mariko. In reality, Etsuko considers moving to Britain a much better idea for Niki’s future. She also wants to run away from her painful past. In her narrative, Sachiko is very cruel towards her daughter at times—when Mariko tells her repeatedly that she is not ready to leave Nagasaki, she drowns her pet kittens. It echoes how the weight of Etsuko’s decisions sits heavily on both Niki’s and Keiko’s shoulders. 

Why did Keiko Take Her Life? 

Since Keiko’s death, Niki has always avoided going close to her room. While moving the packages with Etsuko, she admits to not sleeping in her room since Keiko used to live opposite her. But, after the real estate agent takes photographs for the buyers, she musters up the courage to enter Keiko’s room. She looks at the things left and opens a box—in there lies a small pair of binoculars, eerily similar to the ones that Etsuko gifted Mariko. When Niki starts to flip through the dusty pages of the old family album, she comes across photos of a small child holding a kitten. The child, who appears happy in the black and white photo, is Mariko. Keiko is the physical embodiment of Mariko, Sachiko’s daughter, who is just a fragment of imagination in Etsuko’s narrative.

Mariko has the fewest number of dialogues in the film, and she is probably the most heartbreaking character of “A Pale View of Hills.” She is the innocent child who pays the price of everything and carries the weight of Sachiko’s decisions. Her little eyes hold the pain that is beyond description. We get so little description of Keiko, but through Mariko, it is not difficult to understand the pain she endures throughout her childhood. Mariko appears lonely, and her only companions are the cat and the kittens. When Sachiko takes them away from her, Mariko silently watches in agony and runs away in despair. She cannot express her emotions and buries them deep in the farthest corners of her heart. 

The helpless child has always been deeply sensitive to abandonment. Throughout the film, Mariko deals with loneliness—when she tries to befriend the boy at the park, she forces herself to withdraw from social interactions after he blames her. Mariko senses danger and silently absorbs adult trauma. Life teaches her that love is not unconditional—when she refuses to leave Nagasaki with Sachito, her mother scolds her violently. She takes away the only thing that gives her happiness and lets her cling to life. The way she runs away, it echoes how Keiko suffers from anxiety, and when she cannot bear the weight of being an unwanted child, she hangs herself. Her death is a traumatic memory in Etsuko’s life.

What Is The Real Meaning Of The Film?

The film ends on a very light note instead of a dramatic climax. Etsuko does not break down, does not cry out loud, or behave violently – she remains composed. Etsuko constantly reflects on her past and faces the truth but manages to stay distant from emotions or reality. She sits silently, playing the piano with Niki accompanying her. She does not confess anything or talk loudly about her wrong decisions. 

Etsuko does not intentionally mix up her past memories or choose between parts—her denial of reality and erratic behavior are a reflection of how postmodernist literature describes the effects of trauma—it forces people to build fragmented narratives, takes away their ability to fully paint a picture of their painful experiences, and rearranges memory instead of erasing the horrifying parts. Sachiko is not the villain. In reality, Etsuko is not an antagonist as well. Both of their behaviors get shaped by the way survival instincts overpower emotions. They carry the trauma of both the World Wars and the gruesome fate of Nagasaki when the atomic bomb explodes. Etsuko tells Sachiko and Mariko’s story because that is the only version of truth that she can tell. That version of her past is something that she can look at and describe but never walk into. That’s why in the narrative, she always watches Sachiko and Mariko in the tram from a distance. Etsuko never got peace with her past life; she only had containment. Her version of the story is not the absolute truth, but it is what Etsuko needs to believe to live with herself. It is the exact version of the truth that lets her breathe a little amidst carrying the weight of guilt and trauma for the remaining days of her life. Overall, the movie forces us to confront ourselves and reflect on how we can deal with our traumatic past—do we accept it as it is, or do we try to accept some parts that we like?

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