Reincarnation (2004) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Professor Omori believed the body was merely a vessel for something greater and became obsessed with proving the existence of reincarnation. He murdered his own children as part of a broader ritual to understand what happens to consciousness after death, seeking empirical evidence of rebirth through the act of killing and documenting it.

• professor omori
• children
• murder
• reincarnation
• obsession

The footage vanished mysteriously after Omori recorded himself committing the murders and suicide. The film essentially disappeared as if the truth itself had hidden away with the crime, becoming a legendary lost recording that filmmakers and investigators searched for decades but never recovered.

• footage
• vanished film
• camera
• evidence
• mystery

Nagisa is targeted because she is playing Omori's daughter Chisato in the film about the massacre. As filming progresses and she uses the same camera Omori used, she becomes a conduit for the past. The ghosts draw her into reenactments, and she begins experiencing the events from both the victims' and ultimately Omori's perspective, making her the focal point of the supernatural activity.

Foreshadowing: Early in production, Nagisa finds an old camera similar to Omori's and senses it carries memories rather than just film.

• nagisa
• ghosts
• possessed
• chISATO
• actress

The camera Nagisa discovers is the same device Omori used to document his killings. It serves as a direct physical link between the 1970 massacre and the present-day filming. When the production team reviews footage from this camera, the past bleeds into reality, allowing Omori's recorded perspective to see through Nagisa as she reenacts the tragedy.

• camera
• omori
• filming
• relic
• haunting

When Nagisa looks into the glass shard while attempting suicide, she sees Omori's face reflected back instead of her own. This occurs because the supernatural film has merged their perspectives, Omori is watching through her eyes from the afterlife, and the boundary between victim and killer has blurred. Her agent simultaneously observes Omori witnessing Nagisa's reflection rather than his own.

• reflection
• omori
• nagisa
• suicide
• perspective

The red ball and doll are Ayumi's children's favorite toys, the same children Omori killed in 1970. When Ayumi presents them to Nagisa in the mental ward, they represent the lingering attachment of the murdered children and their attempt to claim Nagisa as their mother or vessel. The toys symbolize the past's grip and the cyclical nature of the haunting that refuses to end.

Foreshadowing: Ayumi explains early on that Omori viewed the body as merely a vessel for something greater, hinting at the children's spiritual continuation.

• toys
• doll
• ball
• children
• ayumi
• nagisa

Ayumi gives Nagisa the toys because she recognizes that the spirits of her children have attached themselves to Nagisa. Whether as an act of mercy, a continuation of the cycle, or a deliberate surrender to the haunting, Ayumi provides the objects that anchor the children's spirits, effectively allowing the haunting to complete itself through Nagisa.

• ayumi
• toys
• children
• mental ward
• surrender

The film deliberately blurs this line. Nagisa experiences genuine supernatural phenomena, ghosts appear, she is pulled into reenactments, and objects from the past respond to her. However, her collapse into a full-body restraint in a mental ward suggests genuine psychological deterioration. The ambiguity is central to the film's horror, as it implies the haunting may be both literal and psychological.

• possession
• trauma
• nagisa
• breakdown
• ghosts

Ayumi was the sole survivor of Omori's killing spree in 1970. She lived with the trauma for 35 years before the film production brought the events back into focus. By the end, she remains a quiet, ominous presence among the executives watching the final takes, and she personally delivers her children's toys to Nagisa, suggesting she has become complicit in or surrendered to the supernatural cycle.

• ayumi
• survivor
• wife
• omori
• trauma

The original camera Omori used to record the massacre functions as a supernatural conduit. When the modern film crew uses it, Omori's recorded consciousness merges with the filming process. The footage shows events from Omori's point of view even while actors perform, meaning he essentially watches and controls the reenactments through the camera, pulling Nagisa into his perspective.

• camera
• omori
• POV
• actors
• seeing

The title refers to multiple layers: Omori's literal attempt to prove reincarnation through murder, the way the past lives on through the film and its actors, and the final merging of identities where Nagisa becomes vessels for the dead. The cycle repeats, filmmaking about tragedy recreates the tragedy, suggesting reincarnation as an inescapable curse rather than liberation.

• reincarnation
• title
• meaning
• cycle
• rebirth

Yuka Morita, an actress who auditioned for the film, claimed to have memories from a past life and showed Yayoi a birthmark she believed was evidence of strangulation. This suggests she may have been one of Omori's victims in a previous life. The ghosts eventually drag her away, confirming her connection to the past life and indicating the supernatural forces do not distinguish between the film production and original events.

• yuka
• past life
• birthmark
• strangulation

The ghosts target actors because the film production itself serves as a ritual that bridges the past and present. By casting people to portray the victims and perpetrator, the production literally invites the spirits to reenact the tragedy. The actors become possessed because they are embodying the dead, making them conduits for the unresolved souls.

Foreshadowing: Nagisa's visions intensify specifically during filming, and the actors begin transforming into the characters they portray.

• actors
• ghosts
• possession
• film production
• targets

In the ending, Nagisa transitions from terror to a chilling calm and smiles as the ghosts close in around her. This suggests she has been claimed by the spirits of Omori's children and is now part of their realm. The restraints are removed as she surrenders to the haunting, and the lingering shot of the red ball and doll implies she has become the next vessel or victim, with the cycle continuing beyond the film's conclusion.

• ending
• nagisa
• spirits
• smile
• possession