The Fossil

An industrialist is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He is on a trip to Europe at the time, and a glimpse of a Japanese woman in that setting causes him to fantasize about her as the personification of his impending death. As his dialogue with his imagined mortality continues, he actually meets the living woman who is the template for his fantasy, and together they tour rural churches. Gradually he comes to some kind of peace about the diagnosis. When he returns to Japan, he is met with a series of challenges which profoundly test the lessons he has learned.

Top Cast

Shin Saburi

Tajihei Itsuki

Keiko Kishi

Madame Marcelin

Gō Katō

Narrator

Hisashi Igawa

Funazu

Mayumi Ogawa

Akiko Itsuki

Komaki Kurihara

Kiyoko Itsuki

Kei Yamamoto

Akihiko Kishi

Orie Satō

Kishi's wife

Seiji Miyaguchi

Sunami

Haruko Sugimura

Itsuki's stepmother

Ichirō Nakatani

Taisuke (Itskuki's brother)

Yoshio Inaba

Toyoshima

N/A

Sue Mitobe

Itsuki family's maid

Jūkichi Uno

Tappei Yakubi

Shigeru Kōyama

Dr. Kihara