Summer Days with Coo movie poster.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done a movie review, and since ‘Black Friday’ and other assorted consumer-fests are on the horizon, I’d like to draw readers’ attention to another excellent Japanese movie, Summer Days With Coo.
This is the story of an orphaned water sprite, called a ‘kappa’, whose resilience in the face of suffering teaches a Japanese pre-teen about what it means to love and respect other people.
Traditional Japanese rendering of a ‘kappa’ water sprite.
If you’re tired of vampy Disney princesses who whine about their personal responsibilities, then Summer Days With Coo will be very refreshing. The movie is free of obnoxious ‘American values'; it’s a sympathetic introduction to Japanese culture and mythology; and has great (original!) storytelling.
One of these costumes didn’t have to be modified for the ‘Adult’ market. Try Summer Days with Coo instead of Frozen this year.
The downside to Summer Days with Coo is the price. The cheapest version available on Amazon is US$40.00; but if that’s outside your budget, some kind person has put up a high-quality English-subtitled version on Youtube:
Having said that, this film is worth more than two copies of ‘Frozen’ and I encourage people to support quality film-making. Coo was directed by Keiichi Hara, while Masao Kogure wrote the story.
Traditional European rendering of the Snow Queen by Edmund Dulac.
If you’re interested in the good things I have to say about Studio Ghibli, another Japanese animation studio, check out my post here. Summer Days With Coo is not a Ghibli film, but a co-production between several companies. It’s also not a film for under-5’s, because there’s some violence at the very beginning. If you’ve got very young children, I suggest My Neighbour Totoro instead of ‘Frozen’; for kids between 5-12 I suggest Spirited Away instead of ‘Frozen’, if Coo’s initial samurai violence is too much for you. (Disney ‘presents’ Ghibli films in the US, but Ghibli execs don’t let Burbank destroy their films– good story there.)
The uplifiting news is that if you’re willing to step away from the Disney monolith, there’s a lot of good children’s programing out there: ethical kids need ethical entertainment.
P.S. If you’re interested in the history of Disney and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration’s cooperation with the KGB, you’ll enjoy Walt and El Grupo.
