Two elderly sisters live in a house piled up and over with junk. They go on daily scavenging expeditions to find new stuff which they bring home and meticulously catalog. One day they discover some red yarn which they bring home and in the night a girl with a knitting obsession breaks in and repeatedly knits and unpicks a sweater for herself.
The first half of this film is charming. Some of the subtle humour might be lost on a western audience - for example one of the sisters has a western style of dressing and eating while the other has an eastern/Japanese style, and some of the comedy is in the Japanese descriptions of the drawings they make of their junk.
However the story loses its way after this. You can almost see the director's thought processes here: How do we resolve this film? Why are the two sisters living together? Obviously the answer involves War and Love Lost. The girl turns out to be pretty annoying. The house gets cleaned up and cleared out (thereby losing all its charm!). The plot starts to fall apart as we segue back in time, and I found it hard to fathom exactly what was going on for the last bit. Nevertheless the animation is great fun - think "Happiness of the Katakuris" for something similar.
7/10 - worth watching but don't be expecting greatness.
The first half of this film is charming. Some of the subtle humour might be lost on a western audience - for example one of the sisters has a western style of dressing and eating while the other has an eastern/Japanese style, and some of the comedy is in the Japanese descriptions of the drawings they make of their junk.
However the story loses its way after this. You can almost see the director's thought processes here: How do we resolve this film? Why are the two sisters living together? Obviously the answer involves War and Love Lost. The girl turns out to be pretty annoying. The house gets cleaned up and cleared out (thereby losing all its charm!). The plot starts to fall apart as we segue back in time, and I found it hard to fathom exactly what was going on for the last bit. Nevertheless the animation is great fun - think "Happiness of the Katakuris" for something similar.
7/10 - worth watching but don't be expecting greatness.
