3.5/5 stars

The horrors the second world war inflicted on Japanese civilians can be felt throughout this animated film by Sunao Katabuchi. But the skilful director – a protégé of Hayao Miyazaki, having worked on several Studio Ghibli features – doesn’t shove the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima in the audience’s face. Instead, that blast serves as an ominous backdrop to what is essentially a coming-of-age story of a young woman named Suzu, voiced by Rena Nounen.

In fact, In This Corner could be considered a tribute to women in general; the film doesn’t just focus on Suzu as she goes from a wide-eyed pre-teen girl to a housewife who lives in Kure, the seaport town close to Hiroshima.

In the episodic first act, we see Suzu as a young artist spending time with her doting mother and grandmother. Later, during the war, the adult Suzu works hard to dole out rations to her fellow countrymen alongside her mother- and sister-in-law.

Rendered in 2D, the film is beautifully animated and illustrated, its colours muted. Even as the setting grows increasingly grim – Suzu and her family are forced to move to an air raid shelter in the third act – the protagonist keeps her love and hopes alive.