The House of Small Cubes

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.

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.

Intro: The House of Small Cubes is a Japanese short film, and one of the best animated films to come out of Japan, up there with Spirited Away. And frankly, one of my favorite short films of all time. And pun intended, a sunken gem of the Japanese film industry.

The Story: Told entirely through visuals, this film tells the story of a lonely old man, who to save his house, builds it so it's much higher, and rises above the flood waters and shifting tides. And when he looses his smoking pipe, he goes to retrieve, and in the process, relives his past life.

Clearly dealing with themes of loneliness and life, this film does it with such amazingly written storytelling, and moments that got me very close to bringing a tear to my eye. Making it the movie that came closest to making me cry. Emotionally impactful and dealing in mature themes, this film is a master at good storytelling, a film that inspires me in this respect.

The Characters: As I mentioned before, the film focuses around one character. And in this film, he deals with having to relive his past of loosing people in his life, and that by building his house so it's taller, he's leaving behind their memories. However, by the end of the reminded of how it's important to remember them. In what is one my favorite endings to any film. To cut this section short, I love the arc that are nameless main character goes through.

The Animation: Even though the film technically qualifies as anime, the animation style could not be more different from other anime. Having a sort more abstract drawing style to it, the film's animation is unlike anything I've ever seen. And it's simply beautiful to look at. And I would recommend it to people of all tastes because of this. I would recommend it to people who anime, people who hate anime, people who like animation as a whole, or just people who like film, or good stories.

Conclusion: This film is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. It's impacts the audience emotionally, it deals with great themes, the writing is stellar. And it's just worth a watch. So please, give it a watch. And if my review convinced you to look for this gem, maybe the 8.3 rating will. Considering around 9,000 people in total, gave the movie an 8.3, I'm clearly not alone in my opinion.

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 .

I don't know why at least two people in other comments write about „flood caused (probably) by global warming".

To me, the flood is purely metaphorical. It's the time that is cruel and forces us to move on, to the next stage of our lives even if we don't want to, because we feel happy where we are, even if we maybe would like to stay there a little bit longer. But we cannot. The rising water forces us to go on. There's no exception.

The old man from the movie travels back in time to watch again the memories of his life but also, as we all know, he becomes aware all those moments are absolutely gone. It's not possible to live underwater – we can only submerge for a moment to have a look at what is there that is all we can do.

This is a movie about life, about being old and lonely, NOT about the global warming nonsense.