Kumamoto Stories
2002 Japanese anthology film

Kumamoto Stories (熊本物語, Kumamoto monogatari) is a Japanese historical anthology film directed by Takashi Miike. Released on DVD on July 20, 2002, it contains three short films produced between 1998 and 2002 presenting legends about the history of Kumamoto Prefecture.
Tsuiketsu Fantasy: The Dream Legend of Tonkararin
Zuiketsu gensō: Tonkararin yume densetsu (隧穴幻想 トンカラリン夢伝説, Zuiketsu gensō: Tonkararin yume densetsu)
Runtime: 33 minutes.
Produced in 1998 by the Government of Kikusui-machi and the Government of Kumamoto-ken.
Filming took place in Kikusui, Kumamoto.
Plot
1500 years ago, samurai invaders attack a village along the Kikuchi River near a cave in the east side of the country named Tsuiketsu where the people gather in the tenth month to receive the god Tsui. The invaders kill everyone except a little girl hiding in the cave who uses her mother's magic necklace to summon the dragon god to defeat them.
Twenty years later, more samurai invaders from the Mikado invade the country. The girl's husband gives his life fighting the samurai to protect her while standing before the cave. Facing this new threat, she sacrifices herself and saves the country by stabbing herself while wearing the necklace.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kumamoto Stories” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.