The House of Small Cubes

A previous review on this site states my exact thoughts, but I couldn't not write a review about this. The animation is simple, but impressive. It is light, and nostalgic. Nothing needs to be explained and allows the viewer to interpret the story on its own.

I interpret the water rising as a metaphor for getting older, and being unable to go back to previous years (or as in the short film, go back previous floors due to them being flooded). Each floor also gets smaller the higher it goes, because when you are younger, the amount of things or choices in your life seem endless, but once you grow up they are more limited. I don't think the flood was about global warming.

I also think that the man represents the lonelines elderly people experience as they grown older. It is harder to make friends and the people you once had around might not be there anymore. They are isolated from the world and forced to live in their homes or nursing homes. The old man had children but they didn't come to visit them. It is the sad truth that lonelines is a big factor to depression and many elderly suffer from it.

This is why this short is a real tear jerker, because seeing the elderly man light up remembering his life and the people he loved is something we know we might all experience one day.

This was a beautiful film and deserves to be appreciated .

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.

Gretings from Lithuania.

"Tsumiki no ie" (2008) is a very good short animated movie. The settings, plot are nothing short of amazing. This is a very sad and beautiful story about life, beautiful moments in our life which live only in our memories when time comes to the end. The idea behind this little picture is amazing. No wonder it won Oscar for the best short animated movie.

Overall, this is wonderful little gem that should be watched and appreciated by people who already lived and have some experience in their lives.

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 .

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.