Call Me Chihiro - The Beauty of Shamelessness
Thoughts On: Call Me Chihiro (ちひろさん, 2023)
A former sex worker restarts her life.
A masterpiece, pure and simple. At its heart Call Me Chihiro is a film about shamelessness. This shamelessness is at once the kind that lead ones into darkness and reveals the real beauty of the world for it is a device that bares one naked before the truth of things. Chihiro is a crystaltype symbolising this notion in her essence and drama; one of the most subtle and inspired characters I have ever seen committed to film. In introducing us to Chihiro's shamelessness this narrative opens up a space between the dichotomy of alienation and connection. In Chihiro we find a soul who has seen her irrevocable disconnection from all sentience; a woman who has faced her individuality as an existential body caught on the skin of humanity but ultimately born of her own planet. She brings us into the notion that we are that trapped behind our own eyes and others just the same, therefore completely disconnected by distance and the mystery of the uniqueness of humanity. So though Chihiro's shamelessness gives her the capacity for dignity - which she can share with others as a gift of her sight - she is a scarred person who has walked long through the edifying void. This is why she cannot love; it hurts too much to embrace the inebriating delusion that one is not alone, to believe others are from one's planet, that one has a place and family: the high poisons her. Her curse is to be and not known, which is why she runs from the possessive grips of love. However, in coming close to the flame of attachment, she is burnt and scarred again, finding herself a new definition to her name - one, we hope, she can see to be known and not so alien. A new personal favourite.
