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Once upon a time, in the early 2000's, I purchased a VHS tape that had recordings of a live-action TV mystery Mini series. The spoken language and actors are presumably Asian (for the longest time I assumed Japanese, but now I am not so sure). The episodes were short, 15 to 20 minutes long each, and seemingly separate from one another. As I did not know the language of the show, I can only assume through context clues what the plot of each episode was about. 2 of the plots I vividly remember, while the 3rd I only caught the tail end of. I will do my best to recount what I remember, I hope it is enough to go on.

  1. This is the one I only saw the ending of. A person is being chased by a Terminator ripoff: black clothes, black sunglasses. At some point the Terminator stops chasing and stands completely still, as if in mid-run. A slot opens up in their forehead and a small disk comes out of it. I do not recall anything else about this particular episode.

  2. A detective is asked to investigate a string of deaths. The only connection is a television commercial was aired around the time the death occurred. After examining the commercial frame by frame, the detective discovers a subliminal message, presumably encouraging whoever watches the commercial to die, commit suicide, or be murdered (again, I have a language barrier). The detective is eventually seen walking down a busy street that has televisions for sale behind store windows. The commercial comes on, and passerbys begin to stare quietly at of the detective. They all proceed to move in and presumably kill him. The episode ends with the camera slowly zooming in on the commercial and these subliminal message is shown along with a picture of the detective. (Presumably saying 'kill this guy'.)

  3. A wife and husband are at a hospital and the wife is in labor. She hears, presumably in her mind, the gentle cry of a newborn baby. It is presumed that she had a miscarriage because the next scene shows that the couple is very sad. The wife seems to believe that her child is still with her, in spirit? She begins to act happy, as if nothing is wrong. She then proceeds to act as if she has a child: buying baby clothes, painting a baby room, buying toys and a crib, etc. There's a scene where she takes an empty baby stroller to a nearby park where there are other mothers enjoying the day with their children. Another mother asks about her child, and the mother gets embarrassed and immediately leaves. (presumably because she knows it's crazy to tell other people that my child is a spirit, invisible, or whatever) The husband is back home looking over bills and paperwork, presumably lamenting the idea that his wife is deranged and spending a lot of money on a child that they do not have. This creates conflict. The husband get so frustrated, he takes an empty baby carrier and is about to throw it into a nearby lake. There is shouting between the husband and wife, then tears, then they hug, then a real baby appears in the baby carrier. They live happily ever after?

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    Welcome to Sci-Fi Stack Exchange! No need to apologize for the length of the post. Detail is good, and you've laid it out well.
    – Helbent IV
    Commented May 20, 2021 at 6:13
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    Thanks! I wasn't sure if too many details were going to be a detriment or not. But this was all that I could remember <_> I am very thankful that this community exists.
    – Jay Kb
    Commented May 20, 2021 at 20:55

1 Answer 1

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Yo ni mo Kimyou na Monogatari (Tales from the Unusual), aired from 1990 to 1992.

From the only IMDb review (which quite frankly is smoother than the translation of the Japanese Wikipedia page):

This is a long running horror TV series hosted by Tamori (In the early days it was hosted by Shigeru Saiki). The format is loosely based on the Twilight Zone. It started as a late night TV show, but has since moved to regular hours.

The format of the show is an omnibus of short stories, but some episodes were later remade into feature length drama, or a movie. [...]

Unlike Rod Serling who played the host in a straight laced way, Tamori usually injects humor into his part. The series that started out small have become long running major series. It continues to be broadcast on a regular basis with two specials broadcast each year in the Spring, and Fall.

It was a daring attempt in the beginning by the production staff to put this series on air, but has become one of the most significant TV series in Japan since then.

Specifically it seems that you bought the following episode, the title of which I unfortunately cannot get:

  • "baby carrier in river" scene at 32'40
  • "suit surrounded by folks about to lynch him" at 52'40


Found with the Google query asian twilight zone series which led me to this solved Reddit post:

It's a Japanese show and it's format is very similar to the Twilight Zone. All of the episodes had different anthology stories, the only constant was the Narrator is a creepy old Japanese man sitting in a completely white room and he introduces and closes the episode.

I then proceeded to check the listing of episodes to find a title which would seem relevant. This was a total failure, so I searched for Yo ni mo Kimyou na Monogatari 1990 then 1991 then 1992 on YouTube, clicked the first thumbnail which looked 90s-ish and got lucky.

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    OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH WOW! This has been on my mind for so long. Thank you, thank you thank you! I found that same IMDB page a few months ago, but I couldn't find any videos of it. And it turns out that the YouTube video you posted, is a week old. Meaning it could only be properly found around this time. This is so bizarre and amazing and just all-around fantastic Thank you again for your internet sleuthing and explaining it in such detail. My mind is truly blown XD I can't wait to find subtitles or a transcript for this now XD Thank you again, so much. This is truly a wonderful community.
    – Jay Kb
    Commented May 20, 2021 at 21:03

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