In This Corner of the World is a film I anticipated watching for many years, despite being able to watch the film’s premiere when it first came out. I was still working at the Japanese Cultural Center back then, and remember it being a headliner and featured heavily in the promo for the summer film festival at my job during that time.
I think either I was working the night it premiered in the U.S., or it sold out and I felt awkward about asking for a reserved comp ticket, and that’s why I didn’t watch it back then. Oddly enough, eight years later I finally decided to sit down and see what all of the hype was about; it did not disappoint me in the slightest.
In This Corner of the World Review
Narratively speaking, In This Corner of the World is very much a documentary, following the daily life of newly wed Urano Suzu.
Suzu grew up on the outskirts of Hiroshima, and later meets and marries a man from the nearby city of Kure named Houjou Shuusaku. Her husband Shuusaku is in the military, and we see Suzu’s life change as she has to adapt to the war efforts while trying to maintain the balance of homemaking and domestic life.
I watched Grave of the Fireflies years ago, and I will most likely only ever watch that film once based on the tone of the story. I would consider rewatching In This Corner of the World again because of its lighter tone, and emphasis on traditional daily life experienced in early 1900s Japan before World War II.
Life in Pre-World War II Japan
Suzu’s grandmother instructs her that she must tell her new husband that she “had a brand-new umbrella” on the night of their wedding to denote her virginity, something Suzu being an airhead probably still didn’t understand by the end of the film.
The way the sisters Suzu and Sumi hold their chopsticks denotes in Japanese folklore how far away they would travel to live with their betrothed. Suzu was foretold not to go very far, and that ultimately ended up to be true as she wound up just on the other side of the mountain with Shuusaku.
One day, Suzu sees a young girl come down from the ceiling to eat the whites of a watermelon rind while the family was away in another room. Believing that it is a yokai that bestows wealth and good luck to the home, Suzu asks her grandmother for fresh slices of watermelon to set out as an offering for the “mythical being”.
It is only years later that Suzu ultimately meets the “yokai” Shiraki Rin in the Red-Light District after getting lost on her way back from buying sugar at the local black market during active wartime.
The film only hints at the two girl’s past connection, and Suzu is very much drawn to Rin, but doesn’t know why. At the very end of the film, the credits roll as we are silently told Rin’s story through various illustrations of her early life.
From what I could gather (and based on what Rin told Suzu during their brief but impactful meetings) Rin was born into a very poor family. Her mother had too many mouths to feed, and sold Rin to another household after escaping with her children from an abusive husband. The child of the household Rin was employed at kept bothering her, and while fighting back Rin accidentally murdered him. Not wanting to be punished, Rin ran away to the capital where she was found and coaxed through food to go live with a madame of a pleasure house.
Before being employed as a prostitute, the last place Rin ran to was the Urano home. It seems Suzu’s grandmother was sheltering the child while she figures out a place to go. Hence, Suzu encountering Rin “the yokai girl” sneaking down from the attic as a child to eat scraps and mistakes her for a spirit.
It was repeated, small encounters and subtle instances like this that made me open to rewatching the film in order to simply figure things out.
As many story mysteries still remain…like why Shuusaku knew Suzu’s full name upon first meeting and being captured by the yokai when her older brother Youichi was always in charge of delivering the seaweed.
Or, if it was being heavily implied that the officer Sumi was infatuated with and deemed a “sweet man” ultimately ended up abusing her, and that is why Sumi is bed ridden with bruises and scars along her wrists when Suzu visits her after the war.
I don’t know what exactly I would have taken from this film if I had watched it 8 years ago, as I am a completely different person now with an evolved life experience. But I know that as I am now older (and more mature) than I was nearly a decade ago, I can appreciate the showcase of Suzu’s domestic life In “That” Corner of the World at the time.
I also really enjoyed the nuance of Japanese culture displayed on screen – and the portrayal of Suzu’s at first unsure, but eventually interesting arranged marriage with Shuusaku.
It’s interesting that Suzu accepts the proposal, despite not remembering Shuusaku but ultimately leading both Shuusaku and his father away back into town with a blanket over her head. They thought she was an old woman, and Suzu later learns she met her betrothed again – but doesn’t tell anybody about it.
So, this is a secret between us, the audience – and Suzu, within herself.
(And Shuusaku if he realizes that it’s the same yukata Suzu wore on her wedding night.)
Or, the portrayal of Shuusaku being unconfident in their love, allowing Suzu a “hall pass” to sleep with her beloved childhood friend Mizuhara Tetsu when he later comes to visit Suzu after learning of her marriage.
Which I found weird – because as children it seemed like Suzu and Tetsu disliked one another, and that when Suzu told him of her betrothal, Tetsu didn’t seem to care. Only for Tetsu to show up to her husband’s home unannounced and openly trying to hit on Suzu in front of her entire new family and in-laws without a care in the world.
It seemed like Shuusaku was offended by Tetsu’s behavior and that is why he kicked him out of the house, but it is later revealed that he wanted Suzu to have an opportunity to “be with him” for a night in case they never saw each other again due to the war.
Although not set in war time, My Happy Marriage had similar arranged marriage vibes and is set around the same time period. After watching shows like Outlander, I have to now wonder if portrayals like this were a common reality during that time period. And in our misjudgment of the past, we saw arranged marriages as something awful for women when in reality, they seemed to have more power in the past than they do today in modern society.
But, tell me your thoughts.
Have you watched In This Corner of the World? Do you enjoy the depiction of Suzu and Shuusaku’s relationship onscreen? What do you think about the adoption of the orphan girl as a pseudo replacement for Harumi’s loss in the family at the film’s end?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, we’d love to hear from you! Also be sure to follow us for more Anime Movie Reviews!
☆ In Asian Spaces
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