The best comic adaptation on Netflix is Call Me Chihiro
Is this clickbait hyperbole? Only one way to find out...
How do we find connection through the struggle and haze of modern life? Do you ever feel like an alien in the world, as if we’re all just placed here from different planets, looking for natives of our homeworlds? Do you really like the films of Jim Jarmusch? What about sensitive and understated narratives about sex workers? Do you think it’d be cool if someone made a very culturally specific and Japanese mash up of those elements?
Well if you answered “yes” to the above, boy, do I have the movie for you! Streaming on Netflix right now, it’s Call Me Chihrio, adapted from the 2017 manga Chihirosan by Hiroyuki Yasuda, directed by Rikiya Imaizumi with a screenplay by Kaori Sawai and Rikiya Imaizumi.
“I don’t like my characters to go big with their emotions. I try to avoid people crying, screaming, touching each other a lot. It’s not realistic. I want to make films that feel close to real life.” - Rikiya Imaizumi as interviewed by Screen Life
Rikiya Imaizumi doesn’t have any other films easily streaming on English language services I could find. Only one of his other films, 2020’s His, streaming in the US on Fandor which is an extension on Roku I guess? My head hurts. The logline: “High school lovers are reunited after 13 years when one takes his daughter to Japan to visit his former classmate. The two men's romance survives through discrimination and prejudice.” Obviously I’m not talking about that movie, but that gives you a flavor for what level this guy is operating on. And frankly, having seen Call Me Chihiro, if His (or any of Imaizumi’s movies) were easily available, I’d check that shit out! Understated gay love story between two 30 something Japanese men, one of whom has a daughter now? Gimme that pathos and bisexual representation!
So what’s the logline to Call Me Chihiro? There basically isn’t one! “A cheery former sex worker looks for meaning and connection as she hangs out with her misfit friends and acquaintances in a bucolic seaside town”. It’s downright Aftersun-esque in how action packed it is. But in an aesthetic way that takes heavy inspiration from it’s manga source material, where shots and character moments can feel like understated sketches more than scenes. Which can be good or bad depending on your tastes!
The cast of the movie. Spoiler alert, there are a lot of characters!
Personally, I liked this movie more than Aftersun. Similar to Paul Mescal’s Oscar Nominated Dad, Chihiro (the former sex worker of the title, played by Kasumi Arimura) carries a deep seated sadness and more is said in what’s UNSAID than what IS said, etc. But she is fun to hang out with! I personally had fun watching this movie, even if it can be a bit emotionally brutalizing (or cringe-inducing depending on the scene and your perspective) to see these characters struggle and fail to connect with their inner selves and each other. Credit goes to the very watchable direction, eye catching cinematography, and the charmingly understated performances of the cast.
In researching, I found this quote from Kasumi Arimura nestled in a piece with some background on the film and it’s manga roots. "I believe that this film will make us realize once again that the warmth of people lies at the root of our daily lives, where we cherish the time when we are alone. I hope that there will be many worlds where people can live as they please in a place where they can breathe easily." Isn’t that a lovely sentiment that makes you want to watch this movie?!
In this piece Imaizumi talks about how he wanted to capture the essence of the manga in part by carrying over it’s visual style as much as possible. The manga isn’t available in an English translation that I could find, but in comparing the two, the similarities are pretty striking! I think this guy kinda nailed it. That is to, Call Me Chihiro may be the best comic book adaptation currently streaming on Netflix…
…If your criteria is one to one adaptation of source material, Call Me Chihiro may be one of the greatest comics adaptations ever made. I’m joking, of course I don’t know how to 100% accurate it is to the manga, I haven’t read it! But it is a fun headline for such an understated and emotionally quiet piece of cinema, lolol.
And yeah I Googled more pages from the manga and it has it’s own thing. But it’s probably worth reading, hopefully the film is successful enough for a translation.
My wife was frustrated by the lack of any real conclusions. Spoiler alert: this is the kind of story that just… ends without giving a satisfying climax on… most, if not all, of the various plot lines. (OK that’s not true, at least one plot line feels like it’s resolved-ish, like one part of the film’s world is brought back into some semblance of balance, but nobody else gets a clear happy ending).
This trio of characters is probably my favorite. Lots to pick from though!
I read some reviews of the movie, and they tend to focus on the opening moment as giving a vibe of what we’re about to experience, where Chihiro cheerfully (and quirkily!) makes friends with a stray cat, before we realize she’s being photographed by a teenage girl. I initially assumed we’d almost be following the girl as much as Chihiro, but the cast just keeps expanding to where there are a bunch of quirky characters. I think it’s fun in its Jim Jarmusch-itude, like Bill Murray is going to show up with Iggy Pop at any moment. But it’s more subtle and understated than that. I guess more Paterson than like, Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. And you know, I liked this movie better than Paterson!
Where was I? So this character (and this movie) is Quirky with a capital Q. We quickly establish that Chihiro, who is open about her SW past with coworkers and customers at the bento stand where she works, is a bit of a local celebrity! You know, that former hooker with a heart of gold who flirts with the creepers at the bento stand, everybody knows who that is in this seaside town.
Which is not to say they don’t judge her for it, very quickly we establish that people have opinions about Chihiro, but she doesn’t pay them any attention, and indeed, the film itself is unerringly compassionate and sympathetic towards her (AND her fellow SW friend who enters the narrative, who I think was played by a trans actor but I couldn’t find anything on the performer in question and I think they were a non traditional actor cast in the role).
You get the sense that she did SW in her past because it suited her, she’s effortlessly nurturing of and curious about the people around her, especially marginalized people, as when she shows extraordinary kindness to a homeless drifter. At another point in the narrative, someone asks about a scar, and she refers to a probably traumatic event where a client attacked her, but in a way that she laughs at the memory and the film never revisits it. It was very striking to my screenwriter brain! Especially at how it reflected attitudes in people I’ve known who’ve been through trauma (and done things like SW).
Now, in a regular narrative, you’d think that the Homeless Man she first meets could become the Core Relationship of the film (that or her encounter with the teenage voyeur, who I read as being queer but is never made explicit), but nope! The homeless guy comes in and out of the narrative, and around the act one break… *spoiler alert* she discovers his corpse and gives him a burial. Oof. Did I mention how much this is like a Jim Jarmusch movie in quiet brutality? It’s got a lot of Jim Jarmusch in it’s DNA.
And I personally quite like Jim Jarmusch! I was discussing a Jim Jarmusch inspired screenplay of mine with my writer’s group, and it got me thinking “what’s my favorite film of his?” The one I’ve watched the most is Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. Artistically, Deadman had the biggest impact on me (well actually Deadman’s score, also fuck Johnny Depp).
In the end, I certainly wouldn’t call this a perfect movie, but a very watchable one, with moving characters and representations of groups that aren’t often humanized. Not to put on my sociologist hat, but in Japan, marginalized groups are often even more marginalized than we would think in the west. Japanese culture, in spite of some of it’s very far out cultural products, actually tends to be very uptight, and if you don’t conform to societal expectations, that’s hard! And this film carries that across in a subtle, nuanced and compassionate way.
So if that’s your cup of tea, Call Me Chihiro, streaming on Netflix, check it out!
Jim Jarmusch approves.