La Maison en Petits Cubes

The House of Small Cubes or つみきのいえ is an animated short subject film by Kunio Katō. I downloaded this several years ago but just rewatched it.

The film starts off with an old man sitting in a small room in a house that is surrounded by water. We soon realize that due to rising water levels, he needs to keep building upwards to stay dry. As he is moving all his belongings out of the old, waterlogged room, he drops his pipe down the hatch that connects to the submerged room next level down. He decides to get some diving equipment, and proceeds to dive down to retrieve his pipe.

What follows is a trip down multiple levels of his house, all the way to the bottom floor. The dive also becomes a journey through his past: taking care of his sick wife, his daughter getting married, daughter as a small child, and to when he met his wife. We also see both of them building the small original house that now serves as the foundation of this submerged tower.

At the bottom, he finds an intact wine glass that he brings back with him to the surface. In the very last scene, we see him pouring out two glasses of wine during dinner. I assume he is toasting his now deceased wife.

Climate change message aside, I found this film really sad. I guess there are multiple perspectives: he could have lived a long, happy life and not is content with his retirement (other than the rising water). However, I see a lonely, old man looking back at happier days. That probably has to do with how I feel. Even though it has been a year since my kidney transplant, my life still feels very precarious, as if I am still on dialysis.

Even though I am not as old as the man in the film (maybe), and I did not have any children, I do have lots of regret when thinking about the past. I still think about my ex-wife, even though the divorce was over 15 years ago. Since she is still alive and (presumably) happily remarried, the sense of loss I feel is harder to define. There is also regret in the poor health decisions that lead to my bypass surgery and kidney failure. Overall, there is a fear that my life will become just like the film: sitting alone at home looking at old photos and thinking about what could have been.