Review movie - つみきのいえ ("Tsumiki no ie") - Pieces of love vol. 1 (Katô Kunio, 2008)

This review is x-posted to Ancient Worlds

If you've watched the Oscars this year, you may have noticed that the Japanese won two prizes: Best Movie in a Foreign Language and Best Short Animation. I will review the latter here, although the former is definitely high on my to-review list and should follow here soon

Although Katô Kunio's speech when he received the award had definitely caught my attention - see below - it's actually almost by accident that I bought the DVD, which just showed up one day on my recommended items list at Amazon Japan. The title ("The house in small cubes" as it is officially translated from Japanese), and, especially, the sheer loveliness of the cover illustration, in a style that one wouldn't expect coming from Japan, but much rather from France (or at least Europe) are really what got me to buy this in the first place. It's only when I received the DVD with its bright gold sticker announcing the Oscars' victory that I connected the dots

The artwork might not be what we've come to expect from Japan, but the finesse in the storytelling, the way the themes which are at the heart of this short, wordless tale (a mere 12 minutes, which you can choose to watch with or without narration - the characters never speak, never need to really) are laid out is definitely something that is more likely to come from Eastern Asian cinema than from anywhere else. The story in itself is as simple as they come: an old man, living alone in the middle of his pictures illustrating his past life, keeps having to build up new storeys in bricks as the level of the sea keeps rising. One day, as he's moving up, he lets his favorite pipe slip and it falls to the bottom of the sea. The old man decides to get it back and get scuba gear to dive in. As he swims down storey after storey, he is reminisced of the many memories of his life, some bittersweet, most happy

It might sound like tear-jerking fodder, but it is everything but. In fact, I couldn't readily give you the name of a movie which talks of loss and isolation, but is also a celebration of life and acceptance, more dignified than this one. It is always touching (the choice to go with a rather old-fashioned hand-drawn artwork being totally justified here and lending it extra charm and warmth) but never wallows in self-pitying nostalgia. Also, there may be no dialogues, but the story definitely has its own voice through a beautifully composed music evolving alongside the main character's inner thoughts and emotions

I cannot recommend "Tsumiki no ie" enough. It is suitable to all ages, although it will definitely make more sense to adults who have already been through some of the happy and sad times that life has in store for us all. The DVD can for now only be imported from Japan as there is no release in either North America or Europe, as far as I am aware (and then you can also probably watch this on any number of video-sharing sites, but if you like it enough, the right thing to do would definitely be to buy it.....)

Katô Kunio's speech at the Oscars - probably the best thank-you speech ever



Tsumiki no ie's teaser trailer