In This Corner of the World (film)


In This Corner of the World is a 2016 Japanese animated wartime drama film produced by MAPPA, co-written and directed by Sunao Katabuchi, featuring character designs by Hidenori Matsubara and music by Kotringo. The film is based on the manga of the same name written and illustrated by Fumiyo Kōno. It premiered in Japan on November 12, 2016. Animatsu Entertainment licensed the global distribution rights of the film in June 2016. Shout! Factory acquired the distribution rights for North America, with a U.S. theatrical release on August 11, 2017, co-released by Funimation Films. An extended version of the film, titled as In This Corner of the World, premiered on December 20, 2019.
The film is set in the 1930s–1940s in Hiroshima and Kure in Japan, roughly 10 years before and after the atomic bomb, but mainly in 1944–45. In the film, nature and traditional culture in Japan are clearly described and contrasted with the cruel and irredeemable scenes brought by the war. Though it is a fictional account, the official guidebook of the film claims that the episodes and background of the story are based on facts and real incidents of the lost townscape of pre-war Hiroshima, damaged by the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, researched by the production staff.

Plot

A young woman named Suzu, who is innocent and loves drawing, lives in a seaside town called Eba near Hiroshima. In 1943, 18-year-old Suzu, working for her grandmother's small family business of cultivating Nori, is told by her parents that an unknown young man has come to propose marriage to her. The man, whose name is Shusaku, lives in Kure City, a large naval port city 15 miles away from Hiroshima City, as a navy civilian. He remembers that he and Suzu had first met during one of Suzu's childhood visits to the city. Suzu decides to marry him and moves to join Shusaku's family in Kure. As Suzu adjusts to her new life in Kure, the threat of the Pacific War slowly begins to encroach on the daily lives of the townspeople.
As food shortages become commonplace, the government implements food rationing. Warning and evacuation preparations against U.S. air raids also begin. Suzu, as a young housewife in a Tonarigumi, takes turns overseeing food distribution and attends training against air raids. Like other Japanese housewives, she makes women's trousers fit for emergency evacuation by cutting traditionally designed clothing, such as kimonos, into parts. As officially allocated food becomes scarce, Suzu looks for any way to feed her family, picking edible plants and trying recommended recipes. Suzu, maintaining her cheerful character, makes efforts to improve the living conditions and to prepare for the air bombing with her family and neighbors. The family builds the air-raid shelter in the garden. Her daily life is full of humorous and lovely episodes.
The family house of Suzu & Shusaku is located on a hillside in the suburbs of Kure, with a view of the Japanese Naval Fleet in the harbor, including the largest battleships, Yamato and Musashi. Suzu enjoys touching nature and viewing boats moving on the sea with her niece, Harumi. One day, as Suzu draws pictures of floating warships, the military police accost her and come close to accusing her of espionage. In December 1944, a navy sailor named Tetsu comes to visit Suzu; he was a childhood friend of hers, and he has been assigned to the Japanese cruiser Aoba, which is stationed in Kure. Understanding it might be Suzu's last chance to see Tetsu alive, Shusaku leaves them alone to talk without a chaperone. The next spring, Shusaku is drafted by the Navy and temporarily quartered with troops in Otake City, 40 miles away from Kure.
In 1945, the U.S. begins air raids on the Japanese mainland; in Kure, U.S. naval airplanes heavily attack warships and its naval facilities. In July, urban areas of Kure are firebombed, and most of the city burns. Like many other Japanese, Suzu is unable to avoid tragedy: in addition to the death of her brother Yōichi, Suzu loses her niece, Harumi, and her right hand, which she describes as an "irreplaceable" part of her body due to its dominance, when a delay-action bomb detonates very close to them. Keiko, Harumi's mother, blames Suzu for her daughter's death. As she suffers from depression, Suzu debates returning to the relative safety of her hometown in Hiroshima City in time for the local summer festival on August 6; when she is unable to see a doctor, however, she decides to stay an extra week in Kure. On that particular morning, Suzu, still at her marriage home in Kure and speaking with Keiko who has forgiven her for Harumi's death and insists on Suzu choosing what to do for herself, notices a bizarre light and an abrupt quake from a distance. Strangely, Hiroshima Radio Station of NHK goes off the air, and a towering, roiling cloud rises ominously over the mountain from the direction of Hiroshima City. Soon, Suzu learns what has occurred in Hiroshima City; a new, devastating bomb has fallen on the town, killing countless citizens and destroying buildings in Hiroshima City. For a while, Suzu is unable to enter or get information about her hometown.
A few days later, in a radio address, the Emperor of Japan announces the end of the War by declaring surrender to the Allied Powers. Suzu, having faced countless setbacks and tragedies during the war, and had grown accustomed to the single-minded focus of keeping the family alive, is forced to accept the reality of her losses and temporarily falls into despair. Soon, the times begin to change rapidly: US occupation forces, no longer the enemy, come to Kure and provide food for its citizens. Suzu visits her grandmother Ito's family house in Kusatsu, a rural town to the west of Hiroshima and out of the affected area, to see her sister Sumi, who took refuge from deserted Hiroshima and is the only survivor of Suzu's family. Sumi informs Suzu of the fate of their parents: their mother left to gather supplies for the festival the morning of August 6 and did not return and is presumed to be one of the 70,000 people who were killed instantly by the initial blast and shock wave, while their father died a few months later after falling ill and succumbing to possible radiation poisoning. Sumi herself has fallen seriously ill from the radiation left behind by the fallout and shows signs of increased susceptibility to infection and fatigue. Shusaku, who returns from his naval service, meets with Suzu by chance in a deserted area of Hiroshima and tells her that he has found a new job. They come across a little girl, a war orphan struggling to survive in the ruins after losing her mother, and adopt her into their home in Kure. The little girl's mother had lost half of her right arm in the Hiroshima bombing and, seeing Suzu with a similar injury, the little girl is drawn to Suzu. Suzu regains her passion for life slowly, with the courage and affection of her friends and family. As the credits roll, their adopted daughter is shown growing up in the Hojo residence, sewing clothes with her own hands, aided by Suzu in peaceful post-war Japan.

Cast

Development

The project was announced in August 2012 and began crowdfunding in March 2015 to raise funds. The crowdfunding was a success, with a Japanese record of 3,374 contributors and the raised exceeding the goal.
Another crowdfunding, to send Katabuchi overseas for promotion, was started on November 22, 2016 and reached the goal of within eleven hours.
Director Sunao Katabuchi tried to add accurate details to the backgrounds of the film, such as one shot which took over 20 revisions to get right, using aerial photographs to estimate the size of a shop and interviewing over 10 elderly residents.
On July 25, 2018, the official Twitter account for the film announced that the film would receive an extended version, containing an additional 30 minutes of footage. The extended version is titled In This Corner of the World. It was originally scheduled to be released theatrically in Japan in December 2018, but it was delayed to December 20, 2019. The extended version emphasizes the relationship between Rin, Shusaku and Suzu.

Reception

Box office

The film on its opening weekend opened at #10 at the Japanese box office, debuting in 63 theaters across Japan and grossed a total of from 32,032 admissions. As of March 25, 2017, the film has grossed a total of over from 1.9 million admissions.

Critical response

On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, In This Corner of the World has a 97% rating based on 73 reviews, with a rating average of 7.65/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "In This Corner of the World offers a unique ground-level perspective on an oft-dramatized period in history, further distinguished by beautiful hand-drawn animation." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." On AlloCiné, the film has an average score of 4.3/5 based on 21 critics, ranked in the 9th place among the films produced in 2016.
Sarah Ward of Screen International praised the film's visual aesthetic and screenplay as "involving and entrancing." In her review, Ward concludes: " is a beautiful, heart-swelling animated movie, to be certain, but it's also one that knows that such picturesque sights and pleasant sensations are only part of the equation." In a review for TheWrap, Dan Callahan found In This Corner of the World to be "beautiful but erratic", disapproving the screenplay but opining that the film "is bound to bring a smile to the face."

Accolades

In This Corner of the World won the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Animated Film, the 90th Kinema Junpo Best 10 Award for Best Japanese Film as the second-ever animated film, and the Jury Award at the 41st Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and was nominated for the 45th Annie Award for Best Animated Feature-Independent.
Sunao Katabuchi won the Award of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Film Category at the 67th Art Encouragement Prize, the 59th Blue Ribbon Award for Best Director as the first-ever animated film director, and the 90th Kinema Junpo Best 10 Award for Best Japanese Film Director as the first-ever animated film director.
The 65th Kikuchi Kan Prize was awarded to the team of In This Corner of the World including participants of the crowdfunding.