Call Me Chihiro

If you’re asking yourself: What is Call Me Chihiro movie about? read this post. In ちひろさん, Chihiro Aya was a prostitute and now works at a small obento shop on the coast. She talks to several clients and, while consoling them, she gathers strength to overcome her own loneliness.

Furusawa Aya (Kasumi Arimura) used to work in the sex industry and takes the work name, Chihiro, after a prostitute she met and befriended as a child. In a very relaxed way, she reveals to everyone who asks what she did for a living before.

“Don’t worry, most customers already know.”

Tae-san (Jun Fubuki) is the owner of the obento shop, Nokonoko Obento, and serves Chihiro a meal when she is passing through town. The two get along very well and that makes Chihiro want to stay in the small town for a while.

“At that moment, I thought: this lady is from the same planet as me. You’re the second person to make me feel this way.”

Chihiro revealed to Tae-san that she was a former escort and as she settles down in the seaside town, she ends up replacing Tae-san, who was not in very good health. Now, every day, she greets customers with a smile on her face, very resourceful and using her life experience to deal with all kinds of people.

Call Me Chihiro: japanese movie review

Chihiro was the most sought after prostitute. Even so, she decided to leave without telling anyone. She suffered from loneliness since she was a child. But instead of isolating herself, she uses her life experience as a prostitute to see the society in a different way than most people.

Without making value judgments, Chihiro knows how to deal with all kinds of people who cross her path at the store or in her day-to-day life. Whether it’s a lonely homeless person, a belligerent person, or a naughty child.

“You must look them in the eye when apologizing to someone.”

As Chihiro meets different people, she teaches, learns or says something important, caring or educational and if it were a bird, a cat or an insect, that living being would, at least, receive a very respectful treatment.

When Chihiro meets Seo Kuniko (Hana Toyoshima), a teenager who doesn’t fit into the traditional family, she teaches Kuniko that if a person is going to do something for someone else, it doesn’t matter to know their name, age or intentions. Just do it!

“I don’t need to know these things. You can’t tell when they’re telling the truth.”

When Chihiro welcomes home Basil (Van), her best friend who still works as a prostitute, and learns that she has lost all her savings and her chance to get out of the nightlife, Chihiro is supportive.

“My door is always open for you and I can get you a job at the obentos shop if you want.”

When Chihiro sees an elderly and mute homeless man being bullied by children, she protects him, offers him food and company to talk to.

“Want to take a shower?”

It’s not that Chihiro was simply kind. She did what she thought had to be done. Even if the person was from a completely different world than hers. And this behavior is capable of changing each of these people a little bit, allowing that, at times, they were able to create bond between themselves without Chihiro being present.

Reviewing Call Me Chihiro: alone in the crowd

By helping people of all backgrounds, Chihiro has created a community around her own loneliness. Ever since she was a child, she felt that way. Sometimes, she had a relapse and I think that having worked as an escort accentuated this feeling.

Being abandoned by her family in childhood caused her to adopt Tae-san as her mother, the pimp, Utsumi (Lily Franky) as her father, and the original Chihiro (Miwako Ichikawa) as her older sister. It is clear that she wanted to have been raised in another way.

Because Chihiro found it difficult to truly love or be moved by someone. But, she knew that all she needed was someone to answer her questions and be excited when she was happy. That was enough for her to treat everyone as best she could.

Why you should watch Call Me Chihiro

I won’t leave Call Me Chihiro ending explained or a download link here, but this Japanese film says several interesting messages. One of them, which I already agreed with, is that most people say that things are better when they are with a company.

But, not all are like that and really good things are good even when we do them alone. Another food for thought for Chihiro and others who are lonely is realizing that, as much as you wish you had come from somewhere else, there are people in the world who love you the way you are now.

Call Me Chihiro trailer

I really feel that you will like this one. So I decided to do this Chihirosan review. Go ahead, immerse yourself in the story, the environment and the soundtrack.

And come back later to tell me what you think in the comments. This is the lightest Japanese movie about loneliness I’ve seen.