Cocoon Review: a Ghibli-Trained Debut Finds Beauty in Wartime Okinawa
The review makes the case that Cocoon, a debut from a Ghibli-trained studio, is a war film worth watching, handling the Himeyuri Student Corps mobilization with restraint and landing closer to Grave of the Fireflies than to Kiki's Delivery Service.
Reporting from 1 source: Beneath the Tangles.
Cocoon - One Summer of Girlhood is a 63-minute historical drama set in 1945 Okinawa, following schoolgirls mobilized through the Himeyuri Student Corps. Based on the manga by Machiko Kyo, the film is the debut of studio Sasayuri and first-time director Yukimitsu Ina. The review praises the restrained dialogue, the oil-painting backgrounds, and the silkworm metaphor at the story's center, calling the film a quietly joyful affirmation of life.
The film's central metaphor is the silkworm: it spins a cocoon at its pupae stage, then is boiled alive to harvest the silk, and the few that survive become moths that cannot fly, a grim forecast for the schoolgirls at the story's center. San is a gentle girl who struggles to speak her mind, supported by her best friend Mayu, who joined the group six months earlier. The teens spend their days building defensive earthenworks under a teacher who acts more like a foreman, until an evacuation order sends them to the southern coast to serve as nurses in cave hospitals. The film is closer in tone to Grave of the Fireflies than to Kiki's Delivery Service.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Beneath the Tangles Beneath the Tangles