cocoon – One Summer of Girlhood at Harkins Northfield
Details
I will be hosting a showing of cocoon - One Summer of Girlhood at Harkins Northfield on the 5th of September.
Length: 90 Minutes (Film itself is 1 hour 2 minutes, remaining time is a behind the scenes interview with composer Kensuke Ushio [Liz & the Blue Bird, A Silent Voice, Chainsaw Man).
Language: Japanese with English subtitles.
Trailer
Tickets at link and available at box office.
Logistics Notes: I'll be in the lobby at 6:00PM with a DCC sign before and after the film. Lots of parking available around the theater. Afterwards, we'll meet in the lobby and move to Waldo's Chicken & Beer for further discussion.
Film Context: This is the initial major work from studio Sasayuri, essentially a mentorship and training studio set up by long-time studio Ghibli in-between veteran Hitomi Tateno. Accordingly, beyond the Miyazaki-esque character designs and mannerisms, there is a lot of Ghibli staff and DNA within this project. Art Director Yoichi Watanabe and Color Designer Nobuko Mizuta both have multiple Ghibli works under their name. Not to mention a stunning directorial debut for Yukimitsu Ina, who also storyboarded the work and shares a co-credit on the script, barely a few years after being a mentee in other development focused works. The work is an adaptation of Machiko Kyo's one volume manga, which I would highly recommend while also warning that it contains extremely difficult and graphic imagery of war.
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Feel free to skip all of this if you want to go into the work completely blind.
Historical Context: In March 1945, over 200 high school girls followed their teachers into the network of caves and defense lines around Shuri castle in Okinawa. They were told they would assist in nursing duties in Red Cross marked hospitals. They were told the enemy would be swiftly defeated and they could return home. Instead, under constant fire, in grueling underground conditions with no light and no medicine, they transported ammunition, performed amputations and crude surgeries. As defensive lines collapsed in June, the unit was dissolved. The surviving girls, diseased, malnourished, raised in a propaganda environment that taught that death was preferable to what would happen if captured, were turned out into the chaos and the crossfire. Over 80% of them would perish in the battle. Cocoon is a not that specific true story but a parallel, a reflection, a depiction of the way someone would dream of that story.