In This Corner of the World [Kono sekai no katasumi ni] **** (2016, voice of Rena Nounen) – Movie Review

Co-writer/director Sunao Katabuchi’s extraordinary 2016 anime animation is based on a Manga by Fumiyo Kono.

Rena Nounen [Non] provides the voice of Japanese heroine Suzu, who enters into an arranged marriage at the age of 18 in the 1930s.

She leaves her home town of Hiroshima and moves to Kure city, where she has to learn to love her new husband and put up with his family, while working to prepare their food, despite severe rationing and shortage of food and other supplies.

Time passes, the weeks, the months, the Americans attack Japan, bombing Kure with jet fighters, then dropping an atom bomb on Hiroshima during World War II. Suzu’s husband goes to war and she and his family stay at home and suffer, badly.

The story is seen entirely through Suzo’s eyes, just one person in all the many millions, trying to survive, trying to get by in appalling circumstances entirely out of her control. By extension, we all are victims of the system and the war-mongers. We are not enemies, just regular folk seeking a usual, ordinary life, with perhaps more than a little portion of rice if possible.

Bold, brave, compelling, multi-layered and multi-detailed, this is incredibly moving, a great Japan animated feature. It is a considerable contribution to the promotion of international peace and understanding at a time when the world seems to have little of either. It is not profound, just plain and simple, humane, warm and welcome.

It comes from Manga Entertainment but it exceeds mere entertainment all the way through and through.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review 

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