The House of Small Cubes

A magnificent parable of life ages like a house , affected by flood, so, time by time, new parts are crafted. A lonely man, looking for his precious pipe, relives sweet hours of past, descinding level by level .

The result, supported by inspired drawings and by admirable music, is just charming, touching and profound useful.

Because it is a short animation about loneliness from a wise angle, offering the fair perspective.

This gift is a real precious one because it is not a story but a travel cross memories of viewer himself.

And this matters, in fact.

A short animation about the houses from heart .

Its clear in the animation that the point of the story isn't the fact that the city is flooding. In my view, the water represents the past, what is flooded is buried in memory. As the old man ages he continues to build upwards to escape the water, which in that sense, represents life. When he drops the pipe, he goes into the water after it. By doing so, he has delved into the past. His pipe represents a sentimental emotion, and by going after it, relives his life from childhood into his present elderly state. The ending will represent, or at least it did to me, the fact that experiencing those emotions again has made him miss his (apparently) deceased wife, and is lonely. His child has reached adulthood and started a life of her own, so what now does he have left? To continue building (living) until he reaches the limit, and ultimately death, which is when there is no higher he can build up.

While the metaphors in Tsumiki no ie are not as deep as the sub-nautical setting, they do not need to be. Everything that "The House of Small Cubes" attempts to convey is clear enough bring about emotion, and concise enough to be understood upon first viewing. Consistent with Japanese minimalism, the animation and art style are both beautiful and elegant. Kenji Kondo's soundtrack; ever withdrawn and ambient, delivers just enough emotional impact at the right points to help the flow of the film while not being overbearing.

Tsumiki no ie is a wonderful twelve minute experience which deserves all of the praise it has received.

Until this day I've never wanted to post a comment even on my favorite movies, but I could not help saying a word about this loveliest, brilliant little animation. When I watched it for the first time I had a feeling of warmth, serenity and happiness. I was happy that human beings can still create such beautiful things in this world. I am amazed at how the director managed to put so many feelings and thoughts in this tiny piece of animation and I want to thank Mr. Kunio Katô for doing that. My congratulations Mr. Katô, you've added a beautiful piece to the art of animation :) And at last but not least I want to mention the music of the movie, it PERFECTLY fits every inch of the film and creates a harmonious unity of sound and image. I hope you will enjoy watching La Maison en petits cubes as much as I did :)

The House of Small Cubes felt a bit familiar, like I might've seen it before in either high school or during some university course, but I don't know for sure. It could just be that the visuals and colors reminded me of The City of Lost Children, and that felt familiar. But for a while, this short film also feels like it could be about forgetting things with age, so that's a bit sobering to not know if I remembered the whole thing or not.

But probably not. I think it's more about grief, and maybe memory but not so much in the sense of losing it, even if the voiceless and solitary protagonist is old. Or it could be an apocalyptic thing. The animation is visually pleasing but there's also something a bit unsettling about it all, with the isolation, and the fact that other people only appear in memories.

Maybe it'll stick with me for good this time, supposing I had seen it before some years ago. I'm not in love with the short, and can't shake the feeling that it was missing a little something that might've made it great, but there's still enough here to appreciate that watching it felt worthwhile.