Call Me Chihiro Review: Pleasant Film, With A Complex Protagonist and That Deals With Loneliness

Stars: Kasumi Arimura, Hana Toyoshima, Tetta Shimada

Director: Rikiya Imaizumi

Streaming Platform: Netflix

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Call Me Chihiro is a Japanese Original Netflix film directed by Rikiya Imaizumi, based on Hiroyuki Yasuda Chihiro’s Japanese manga of the same name by Kasumi Arimura. A former prostitute working in a small bento shop in the seaside town, she taught me how to live my own life in an age where everyone There are more or fewer things to struggle with in life. The script is in charge of the director himself along with Kaori Sawai who adapt the manga “Chihiro-san” created by Hiroyuki Yasuda to a real image. The story of an ex-prostitute who, without hiding her past, begins to work at a food stall in a small coastal town. There she will become a popular person who will comfort the lonely souls who pass through her establishment.

Call Me Chihiro: The Story Plot

Call Me Chihiro tells the story of Chihiro (Kasumi Arimura) a former prostitute who works at a take-out food store. Chihiro makes no secret of her past, devoting her time to helping everyone who crosses her path, be it an old drifter, a child her mother pays no attention to, or a teenager living in a slum. oppressive family environment. Chihiro attends her friends’ dramas almost on tiptoe, as if she were a ghost, as defined by one of the characters. Her influence is not manifested with great fuss or outbursts but in a subtle way, with small details. Little by little, Chihiro will give hope to the lives of those around him, although his own remains almost unchanged.

Call Me Chihiro is another one of those small and well-intentioned films about positive human feelings that comfort us so much while we watch them and that only Japanese filmmakers with a special sensitivity for the details, silences, and symbols that surround us can film. The plot introduces us to Aya (Kasumi Arimura) a young woman who, after leaving home, began working in a massage parlor as a prostitute under the name of Chihiro. Without relinquishing that past, but still marked by it, she has now become the popular shop assistant at a bentō stall (homemade food served on takeaway trays) where she dedicates herself to consoling the lonely souls who pass by, although in truth it is she who needs to heal her loneliness.

Call Me Chihiro and Analysis

This kind of Caprian angel evokes other Japanese films that have to do with gastronomy and good wishes such as A Pastry Shop in Tokyo (Naomi Kawase, 2015), Bread of Happiness (Yukiko Mishima, 2012) or Café Funiculi Funicula (Ayuko Tsukahara, 2018), where the leading actress of Call Me Chihiro had a role with the same characteristic of a spiritual healer whose smile hid a need for love. Gastronomy is very present in Japanese cinematography because it is part of its folklore, going far beyond the simple fact of sitting at a table to eat when you are hungry. The food eaten is a means of communication between people, as we recently saw in the beautiful Netflix series created by the master Koreeda, Makanai: The Maiko Cook (2023). An example is the acorns that Chihiro gives to some people, they have a bitter taste, but in Japanese culture, they are a symbol of good luck.

A Japanese movie that gives a lonely tone Contrasting with the brightness of the female protagonist Chihiro according to the title. By making her the protagonist with a background of a sex worker who now works at a small bento shop. And reveal her old job to the people in the city without hiding. And still smiling and laughing at this like it’s just a normal thing in life What is special about the story is that this character has a unique personality that is bright and generous to everyone she meets. And make the lives of those who have liver problems solved through her unprofitable giving. Until making her becomes a special person, and stands out in a city that everyone loves, but on the contrary, she has a deep loneliness and emptiness in her heart. Living alone the story will gradually talk back about her past self since childhood. To see the pain that she had already experienced, fate brought her to a career in sex work before becoming another person with a new identity like today.

The story doesn’t just tell the protagonist Chihiro but tells a deeper breakdown of the problems of other characters that she passed through like an unruly child whose mother raised him badly. A friendless girl who keeps taking pictures of her. A bento shop customer who has a crush on her, and many others who contributed to keeping the story simple. There’s more to this story than meets the eye. Everyone will have a new perspective on life after meeting Chihiro.

However, the story is quite simple, In the style of Japanese life drama, so much so that it hardly attracts the audience to the screen. There is only the charm of the character Chihiro that actress Kasumi Arimura plays, pure and cute. Until attracted to follow this story until the end but the movie secretly has 1 short SEX scene to talk about her feelings of not being attached to any love. The visual aspect of the story is not very outstanding. Tae came out well in Japanese style. Helps to promote lonely tones. of the story as well. Overall, it’s a typical Japanese formula movie that’s so-so. Japanese people might be a little impressed. But the general audience may not be very into this genre.

Without knowing the manga on which it is based I dare to affirm that Call Me Chihiro is very, very close to the manga of the late Jirō Taniguchi (and I quote Taniguchi because it has very already known him if I have read it). The film shows us a portrait of a small Japanese coastal town with the daily lives of its protagonists. We have to say that what happens, what is said to happen, very little happens in the film. There is no story with a beginning, a middle, and an end in which the protagonists come out radically transformed.

After the end, they will continue with their lives, without their problems having been resolved. Even the protagonist, complex and simple at the same time, will go ahead, leaving her past as a prostitute more like an anecdote or one more job. Even though all the summaries and even the official synopsis emphasize the fact that the protagonist is an ex-prostitute, at the moment of truth it is a minor detail. And it is that Chihiro adopts the role of those people who have marked her for the better, those who are from her planet, trying to imitate them, living lives that are not hers. We hardly know anything about her past, although she feels traumatic.

One of the characters (played by Lily Franky) talks about her first meeting with Chihiro and claims that she gave him the feeling that she was empty inside of her, a void that she strives to fill and that she knows she has. she will not fill. In summary, Call Me Chihiro is a kind, pleasant film, with a complex protagonist who deals with loneliness, and how we are empty inside despite being surrounded by people. Its rhythm will test the patience of more than one, but if you reach the end, you will have the feeling that time has not been wasted, and that the trip has been worth it. Regards, be happy.

Call Me Chihiro: The Last Words

The lonely tone of the Japanese movie Contrasted with the bright, charming protagonist Chihiro, who helps draw attention to the story more than the script. that blacking out simple things According to the style of Japanese movies, the style of drama is generally so-so. Japanese people might be a little impressed. But the general audience may not be very into this genre.