Plot
The film starts with the image of a mechanism beginning to work - as the gears move (behind the scenes), the sun slowly rises up over a town and a new day begins. The town, Hamelin, is shown to be one which is full of corrupted, petty people, where everything is wasted and money and social rank are the first priority. The waste leads to a gigantic rat infestation at night. As the town leaders meet to decide on the best course of action, a stranger appears in the doorway - a hooded piper who with the sound of his playing can entice rats to run over a cliff to their deaths. The town leaders are very happy and offer him 1000 gold coins as payment if he would get rid of all of the town's rats. The piper accepts, and begins walking through the city, leading all of the rats behind him. At the same time, a jewellery seller who was among the elite group of leaders walks into a woman's home and asks her to marry him. The woman (who is so far the only character who doesn't look grotesque, implying innocence) refuses. The jeweller persists, but before he can do anything the piper passes by her house and the jewellery seller is forced to jump out of the window at the sound of the music. After all of the rats jump into a lake, the piper comes back into town, on the way once again stopping the jeweller's advances on the woman. The piper and the woman sit on the bench together as he plays a beautiful melody that is accompanied by paint-on-wood animation (a complete change of style from the rest of the film).
Finally, the piper goes to collect his promised payment. The town leaders (who are in the middle of gorging themselves on food and wine) give him only a black button. The piper leaves angrily. Meanwhile, the jeweller is seen drinking and telling his sad tale of rejection to his friends, who decide to do something about it. That night, they break into the woman's house as she is praying, rape and kill her (this is implied rather than shown). The piper comes, but this time he is too late - all that he can do is close the eyes of her horrified face.
Now the piper climbs up the highest tower in the town, to the top floor where the machinery for the sun that we saw in the introduction is located. At the very top is the god Saturn, holding an hourglass. The piper and Saturn have a silent conversation, and a decision is made. All of the sand in Saturn's hourglass runs out, and the gears that make the sun rise stop working. As the first chime of morning strikes, the sun does not rise; instead, the piper walks out and plays his pipe. As the citizens hear him, they turn into rats and follow the sound, eventually jumping off the tower just like the rats did previously.
The only person left is an old fisherman (who was seen watching the city from far off, earlier in the film) who comes to watch. When he gets close to the piper, however, the piper ceases to exist - his cloak, now empty of a person inside it, flies away with the wind. The fisherman walks into the empty city and finds a baby (who is still uncorrupted) in one of the houses. He takes the baby away with him.
Read more about this topic: The Pied Piper (1986 Film)
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