From: robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Asian worms
Date: 14 Nov 1992 04:02:32 GMT
Organization: U. C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: headcrash.berkeley.edu

Actually, back in the summer of 1991 was staying up into the wee hours of the
night because i had drank too many cans of iced coffee...flipped thru the
channels...then came across a show, that remains firmly impressed on my mind
about a high school student who cracks up under juken pressure....he 
starts thinking that there are things under his skin that are making him 
itch all night, scratching his skin bloody...so one weekend he goes to the
bookstore where his gf works as a cashier, and he asks her for a book on
parasites....she refers him to a such a picture book, and he flips through
it frantically until he comes across a page on a newly discovered Southeast
Asian bug that burrows through the flesh, an extremely ugly silverfish-like
creature (don't ask me if it's a real creature), so he starts convulsing,
all the blood rushing to his head, and flees screaming incoherently from
the bookstore....his gf, completely freaked out, calls out "masao-san?
Masao-san!?" after him....

(The boy's parents never appear throughout this, and his house is always
perfectly clean) in the next scene, he is eating a dish of linguini (which
we assume his mom left for him?) while reading a textbook, and then as
he is about to take a bite, the dish suddenly turns into a writhing mass
of the Asian worm-bugs....panicked, he throws the dish against the wall,
at which point it returns into a dish of ordinary linguini....

next scene, he goes to the doctor's office and describes his symptoms....
the doctor, in such Japanese fashion, laughs off his problems and says,
"kimi, tsukarete irun janai nokane....kono chin-sei zai o ageru kara 
gussuri yasunde oku koto dayo." (You sound stressed out...I'm going to 
prescribe you these tranquilizers, so get plenty of rest.)

That night, the boy is writhing in agony in his bed....

The boy goes back to the clinic, demanding for X-rays.  The doctor reluctantly
agrees, and shows him the perfectly normal photos.  The boy is not satisfied,
and says "OK, they are not visible to the human eye.  Perhaps they are from
space."
The doctor finally says, "Masao-kun, kimi wa nyuu-in suru beki nan janai
no kane."  (Mr. Masao, shouldn't you become an in-patient?)

The boy ignores the comment and says, "SENSEI!  KOITSURA WA SEISAN KARI 
DE KOROSU BEKI DESU!"  (DOCTOR!  THESE BUGS MUST BE KILLED WITH CYANIDE!)
The doctor says, "But with cyanide, you will die!"
The boy replies, "EE!  SENSEI!  BOKU, SHINDEMO IINDESU!  SEISAN KARI O
KUDASAI!!!)  (DOCTOR!  IT'S OK IF I DIE!!! PLEASE GIVE ME THE CYANIDE!!!)

And in the next scene, somehow the boy is back at home, perhaps the doctor
didn't force him to become an in-patient after all, whether because the
boy refused or the doctor didn't want to cause trouble....
and the boy studies at his desk, while behind him, a bug crawls down the
wall....

Finally, as he sleeps that night, he can no longer bear the itching, so
he produces a kitchen knife...proceeds to cut his wrist....BUT THEN, come
out dozens of worms from the wound....screaming, he proceeds to stab 
himself in the legs, which only causes more worms to pour forth...the scene
fades out as he stabs himself over and over, while worms fill up the room....

The next morning, his gf comes to his door, calling out his name, but
due to the lack of replies, she enters the room....

....and finds Masao-kun bleached bones with bugs all over the room... she
screams and flees as they come after her....

THE END

Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan