Call Me Chihiro Review: Quiet, Still and a Warm Slice of Life Adaptation

Call Me Chihiro (ちひろさん) is an affectionate drama Japanese film directed by Rikiya Imaizumi with screenplay from the director and Kaori Sawai. Based on the reassuringly tender-hearted manga Chihiro-san by Hiroyuki Yasuda, the movie has Kasumi Arimura playing the titular role, with Miwako Ichikawa, Hana Toyoshima, Jun Fubuki, Lily Franky and others starring alongside.

With a runtime of 131 minutes, Chihiro’s story has an intimately bittersweet taste, something that we’re all too familiar with. Having worked as a sex worker prior to getting a job at the bento shop of a small town, she offers lonely souls like herself assurance and a comforting company in her own unapologetic yet snug demeanour.

The official description of the movie on Netflix reads:

An unapologetic sex worker starts working at a bento stand in a small seaside town, bringing comfort to the lonely souls who come her way.

-Call Me Chihiro Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-

As soon as one would take a look at the synopsis, vivid images or thoughts may break out in your mind. However, the movie chooses to head in the other direction, and talks about feelings at best, that often stay hidden since they can never be translated well into words. With bento boxes in hand, Chihiro offers people a helping hand, a direct correlation with how much she needs it herself too. It’s just a portrayal of life from a sombre angle, one that we don’t necessarily speak about.

Imaizumi’s direction is so clear throughout that you instantly grasp on to it taking shape as an indie film with warm tones of colour, water reflections and a sole focus on people. While many cinematic experiences focus on the attraction of opposites, this one diverts from that path, and hopes to draw attention to people who’re like one’s self – with whom you can relate, openly talk to, shed your inhibitions and truly belong.

We all carry a sense of loneliness with us everywhere we go. It’s an ever present reality even if we don’t aways express or acknowledge it. The seaside setting, then, brings along two co-dependent images with it – melancholy and solace. There’s noting too picturesque about the visuals either, which is where they take the lead because they’re more organic and closer to ground instead of making an attempt to impress masses. The same goes for the film itself too.

Water is both turbulent and peaceful, but in the movie we only get to see a calm version of the same. Pathetic fallacy is employed to relate this imagery with a human outlook that may appear to be still on the outside, but with topsy turvy storms erupting inside. It’s interesting to see how this transforms into a green pasture towards the end, symbolically indicating emotions on the happy scale.

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The way the story pans out, it centres around highlighting the residual of one’s feelings that are often left unsaid and Arimura justifies it through and through with her calculated yet graceful countenance. Moreover, the camera seems to be capturing a lot of shots wherein only two people sit together on the same side and exchange their vulnerable thoughts with each other, which is brought about by Chihiro’s character.

This is countered with former sequences where people are rather sitting across the table, visually focussing on the emotional distance between them. As we progress further, and each character’s struggle is pointed at, this seating arrangement transmutes into other shapes like a triangle and finally a circle, thus putting the acquired members of this ‘found family’ at an equidistant separation, which is actually not driving them apart. Taking it all into account, the storytelling is quite visceral, fluid and poetic, just like human emotions are, and since they are the centre, the narrative doesn’t seek to push for a particular agenda in mind, or vilify a side or a profession.

While the thought behind the story is warming, the runtime could’ve been cut down to some extent. The charming cast may leave you with a smile, but the overall lack of the plot fitting into a mould may not be a plus for everyone. Yet the best takeaway has to be the idea that no character is fleshed out as a saviour or hero, rather each one of them has a humane gravity in their lives, sometimes negative, sometimes not.

Call me Chihiro: Final Thoughts

Watching this Japanese film, took me back to my reading of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Just like the play, there’s no such action or motion taking centre stage in this manga storyline. It all has to do with people’s interactions with each other, and relaying how one’s mere existence plays a pivotal role in others’ life as well.

While Beckett’s play is more existential in its approach, Call Me Chihiro is all about warmth and emotions. The movie can be easily summed up by a single scene, wherein a character hugs Chihiro, following their deep conversation. On being asked as to how she feels thereafter, Chihiro gives away a single-word reply – “Warmth” – and proceeds to hug the other person even more intensely.

Once again, the narrative may be seen as an extremely slow-paced ride, but that too has to do with the idea that the plot is more character driven than being centred around a fixed chronology of events. The movie is not for everyone, but perhaps, that’s the point too. Carrying an old school, indie vibe, this premiere is poles apart from a lot of sensationalised content that’s put out on OTT platforms nowadays.

It can help you wind down, with the second half especially coming up as a heartfelt embrace. But again, not everyone will be able to reach upto that point. Chances are that most of the viewers will click away from the movie early on due to how much patience it demands of the them, which, too, in a way, captures the essence of life itself. Ps. if you want to find out why the title is what it is, then you’ll have to watch the whole thing unravel.

Call me Chihiro is now streaming on Netflix.

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