Genre: Mystery/Horror
Director: Chan-wook Park
Writer: Seth Overton
Based on a short story by Junji Ito
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rami Malek, Tilda Swinton, Vincent Cassel, Giancarlo Esposito, Claire Danes
Plot: Kume (Jake Gyllenhaal) is bird-watching in the woods, basking in the serenity of the surrounding landscape. He sees a bird returning to its nest to feed its offspring. The young ones chirp enthusiastically as they swallow an assortment of bugs, grubs and worms straight from their mother's beak. Mosquitoes and black flies interrupt Kume, reminding him of the downsides of his hobby. He takes out an insect repellent spray from his backpack and starts spraying around. He stops for a second, thinking he had heard a strange noise in the distance. He identifies the sound as coming from his left. He takes a step back, still unsure how to proceed. He finally decides to investigate further. As he gets closer, the sound becomes more discernible. He thinks it is some kind of moan. He makes out the words "HELP ME" so he picks up the pace, running towards the sound.
He suddenly stops, his eyes widened in shock. He sees a badly injured man (Rami Malek), desperately crawling through the forest ground. Kume calls in the emergency services, who take the man to hospital. When asked his name, he mutters the name Shane under his breath before falling asleep in the ambulance.
The next morning, Kume receives a call from a police detective who wants to go over what happened the previous day and asks Kume to come to the hospital. Kume agrees, then goes to take a shower while leaving the TV on. When he comes back, he sees that reports of the incident are already all over the news. They say that Shane survived for a little over a month, alone in the woods, with just supplies from his backpack.
Kume arrives at the hospital, where Dr. Diaz (Giancarlo Esposito) brings him to Shane. The doctor notes in a surprised tone that in a single night, Shane recovered from injuries that would take weeks to heal. As they walk towards Shane's room, they see a little blackbird flying around the corridors. Dr. Diaz tells him that there is a broken window in the supplies room and birds keep coming inside the hospital. Kume raises some questions about the possible risks of letting the birds roam around in what is supposed to be a sterile environment, but Dr. Diaz doesn't seem too bothered by it, thinking that it brings a bit of rustic charm to the place.
When they enter the room, Shane recognizes Kume right away and thanks him for saving his life. The two of them chat for a while. Kume asks him what was he doing alone in the woods. Shane recounts how he lost his footing while trekking and injured himself. He waited for help for what seemed like months, surviving off the food in his backpack. Kume listens attentively then tries to reiterate the question, with emphasis on WHY he was in the woods in the first place. Their discussion is interrupted when Detective Jones (Vincent Cassel) enters. He politely asks Kume to step outside in the waiting area for a few minutes so that he can ask Shane a few questions. Kume complies.
Outside in the waiting area, a woman (Claire Danes) asks him how Shane is doing. She introduces herself as Kelly, Shane's fiancee. Kume reassures her that his recovery is very good, citing the talk he previously had with Dr. Diaz. Kelly recounts how Shane disappeared a month ago without a word. She had lost all hope of seeing him again when she saw the reports on the news. He comforts her saying that she will be able to see him once the detective is done questioning him. Seemingly unable to refrain himself from pressing on sensitive issues, Kume asks her how come she didn't file a missing person report with the police. The woman stares at him with a frightened look. She stammers as she attempts to speak and rushes out of the hospital. Kume runs after her, apologizing if he said something he shouldn't have. She runs to her car and takes off.
In the hospital room, Detective Jones asks Shane if he has any next of kin he should contact for him. Shane tells him that he has no one, that he has been an orphan all his life and he knows nothing of his kin. He is alone. He has no one. Jones is a bit taken aback by Shane's remarks, as he had noticed his wedding ring the moment he entered the room. He asks about his wife. Shane repeats the same words, like in a trance: He is alone. He has no one.
Before leaving, the detective asks Kume to retell the events from his perspective, then goes back to the station. Kume is about to leave as well, when Shane asks him to stay overnight with him at the hospital. He declines, as he is meeting up with his brother at a sushi place later in the evening, but assures Shane he will be back the next morning. Shane grabs his arm and insists. His eyes betray a frightened look. Kume finally agrees and calls his brother to postpone their meetup.
In the evening, after appearing to have dozed off, Shane mentions Mt. Fuji out of a sudden. Kume is a bit puzzled at first, thinking that Shane has started rambling because of his medication. But then, it becomes clear that Shane is just telling him the answer to his previous question. When he found him, he was out in the woods trekking, because he plans on climbing Mt. Fuji a few years from now and wants to train for it. Kume asks him why he would do that. Shane jokingly asks him why he would stare at birds all day. They both laugh.
During the night, Shane asks for some water. Kume leaves the room to buy a bottle from the vending machine down the corridor. The lights are out throughout the hospital during the late hours so he has to use the flashlight from his phone. He walks down the corridors, trying to find the vending machine. He suddenly hears a loud bang and drops his phone on the floor. He picks it up fast and starts moving it around, scanning the surroundings with his eyes. He finally identifies the culprit. It is the little blackbird flying around. It managed to drop some of the medical supplies on the floor. He sighs, relieved. After a few more steps, he is once again startled by a hand on his shoulder. He turns back, blinding Dr. Diaz with the flashback. The doctor shows him where the vending machine is and even buys the water for him.
As he returns, Kume hears some strange sounds coming from Shane's room. Yet this time he doesn't seem fazed anymore and continues to walk confidently ahead. He won't let his imagination get the best of him once again. However, when he enters the room, he is shocked to see a woman all dressed in black (Tilda Swinton) sitting over Shane. She appears to be kissing him. She turns around when she hears Kume's steps, revealing her pitch black eyes. Kume stands there frozen with disbelief as she smiles at him. She calmly walks by him and leaves the room. Kume attempts to follow her. When he puts his hand on her shoulder, feathered wings grow out of her back and she flies into the darkness. He comes back and sees Shane wake up and spit a chunk of meat on the floor. A tense moment of silence ensues. Shane finally looks at Kume with a mixture of fear and shame: "So you met her."
In the following hours, Shane recounts how he did not in fact survive off the supplies in his backpack for an entire month. Instead, this strange bird woman would fly to him every day, chewing raw bloody meat and feeding him directly into his mouth. She had stopped coming a few days before Kume found him. Kume is at a loss of words. He takes the chunk of meat off the floor so that he could show it to detective Jones the next day. They both fall asleep after a while.
The next morning, Kume greets Dr. Diaz and Detective Jones at the hospital and tells them a more believable version of what happened, leaving out details about how the woman had grown wings and flew away. He gives him the chunk of meat. The detective agrees to look into it, however, the security camera at the reception shows that no one entered the hospital that night. Kume asks what if someone entered through the window in the supplies room. However, Dr. Diaz shows him that the window is too small for someone to crawl through. Before leaving, the detective is once again stopped by Kume who tells him about Shane's fiancee. Remembering his previous conversation and Shane's wedding ring, Jones agrees to try and find her.
Back in Shane's room, Dr. Diaz tells him that his recovery is so incredible he will be released from the hospital that same day, after finishing the necessary paperwork. Shane once again thanks Kume for all his help. He nods smiling. They try to forget about the previous night. Kume starts talking about his brother and how he is saving up money to open a sushi restaurant. Shane jokes that he wouldn't visit, since he's kind of had it with raw meat. They laugh nervously.
Meanwhile, Jones locates Kelly at restaurant in town, where she is working as a waitress. While he waits for her shift to end in order to approach her, he receives a call from the station. The results came from the chunk of meat he sent. They found out it was actually human flesh. As Kelly walks out of the restaurant, the detective ends the call and runs towards her. He attempts to talk to her about Shane. At first she seems receptive, asking how his recovery is. However, once again she becomes petrified after a few more minutes, refuses to talk and leaves. He looks around trying to figure out what could have caused this reaction from her. He sees nothing except a little blackbird flying around. He gets back in his car and sits there for a while in silence. "How the fuck... human flesh!" he exclaims, now finally having the time to process the information.
At the hospital, Shane takes his backpack and gives Kume a friendly pat on his shoulder. Kume makes him promise to send a postcard from Mt. Fuji. He agrees smiling.
As he walks out the hospital door, the scene abruptly cuts to him, several years later, venturing through the snow at the top of the mountain. To anyone else, the cold strong wind and the falling snow might make for a dangerous and uninviting landscape. For Shane, it was true bliss. However, a moment of distraction is enough for him to lose balance and fall in a nearby hole. He realizes the futility of his screams seconds after crying for help. As he attempts to get out of the whole, he recognizes a pair of black wings in the distance. "Go away! I'm not hungry anymore." he shouts. A couple of hours later, he collapses from the cold. His vision becomes blurred. He vaguely recognizes the blackbird woman approaching him. He is afraid, yet in a way he almost welcomes her, as the cold has left him starving. However, the woman does not feed him. Instead she takes several bites out of him, spreads her wings and leaves.
With just a few flaps of her wings, she is now in the woods. She finds Shane who is crawling around moaning for help. She chews the flesh and gives it to him. Blood spills out of his mouth as he takes it. She flies away and she is once again back at the mountain. She takes a few bites out of Shane and leaves once again. With one bite left to give, she sees Kume coming to Shane's rescue. She follows them to the hospital. There, she sees Kelly talking to Kume and smiles at her which prompts her to leave the hospital in a hurry. At night, she gives Shane the last bite. As she is about to leave, Kume touches her. She smiles as she spreads her wings and leaves.
Back at the station, Jones hears reports of another man with broken legs found in the woods. The man says he survived off supplies from his backpack. When asked about his family, he said he had no one. He was alone. He had no ID on him, his only belongings were his bird-watching gear and a postcard from Mt. Fuji.
The detective rushes to his car and goes to the hospital. As he is about to enter Kume's room, the doctor tells him that his physical recovery has been outstanding, though mentally he is not doing so great. The detective greets Kume and asks if he could answer a few questions. Kume doesn't respond. In fact, he doesn't even acknowledge anyone in the room. He just sits there with his eyes fixated on the center of the room, his whole body quivering. The detective looks in the same direction as him and sees a little blackbird on the table. Several years later and they still haven't fixed that damn window.
Kume, however, as he lies there helpless and paralyzed, sees the blackbird woman. She is looking straight at him with her pitch-black eyes, smiling and slowly chewing his food.
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