Name(s): The House of Small Cubes / Tsumiki no Ie / La Maison en Petits Cubes / つみきのいえ
Format: Movie
Studio(s): Oh! Production

The House of Small Cubes is a 12-minute movie by Kunio Katou and Oh! Production studios. An elderly man lives in a city that has been almost entirely engulfed in water, and is yet again forced to build another higher room when the water rises to his current one. He drops his favorite pipe down the floor door to a previous room and grabs scuba equipment to dive down for it. Along the way he goes deeper and deeper down and further back into his past and memories.

The symbolism isn’t difficult to understand, but I like it regardless. My favorite visual detail was how the rooms were forced to become smaller as the tower is built. It gives the impression of not being able to carry all your memories with you as you progress into old age and they begin to fade, and the rising water is a metaphor for nature and how this can’t be avoided.

The French animation inspired style was a treat for the eyes, and the score is quite good. Beyond the visual creativity it’s an entirely sentimental story and not a very fresh concept. It’s succinctly handled, but the subject matter is too well explored and I’ve been more affected by this bittersweet nostalgia of aging in other films’ reflections.

At 12 minutes, it’s definitely good enough to be worth a watch, but I wasn’t very emotionally affected. Perhaps it’s ironically lacking a more human touch because the elderly man’s life is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, which halts a viewer’s connection to his reactions to his memories. There’s nothing to empathize with outside of the basic unalienable look at a general, typical life which is why it’s not a very potent look at one. If it’s everyone’s life, then it’s no one’s life, and not very special.