てんとう虫のおとむらい

Ladybirds' Requiem

— The story begins with a girl mistakenly killing two ladybirds. From this incident, the girl's guilt overwhelms her, creating the hallucination of a button of her blouse turning into ladybirds. She begins to feel that her selves have multiplied and exist elsewhere. In an attempt to assuage the continuous wave of guilt and fear, she keeps sewing hundreds of buttons to the inside of her skirt. — I remember, as a child, reading a children’s book. There was a page that could not stop looking at again and again, though it frightened me and gave me nightmares. I have this vision. A ladybird fell from my hand to the ground, where it was immediately crushed by a car. The yellow liquid oozing from its limbs tasted so bitter. “Ladybird’s Requiem” is based on the transformation of these childhood nightmare into beautiful and nostalgic memories as an adult. —