Summer Days with Coo

An animated film set in a Japanese suburb. Koichi is at primary school. An ordinary family, an ordinary house. One day he finds a stone in a creek. He brings it home. He washes it. Something comes out of it. A kappa. The water creature of Japanese folklore. The animal has been frozen there for centuries. They give him a name: Coo. From there the film is a story of hiding. The family keeps him in the house. Nobody must know. Coo talks. He learns, adapts, and likes television. But he is looking for something. Whether there are others of his kind. He and Koichi set out on a journey. North, to an old region. There is nobody there. There is a dog too. Ossan lives with the family and becomes Coo's friend. At the same time there is a matter at school. A girl is being bullied by her friends and Koichi does nothing. The narrative ties the two lines. Then Coo's existence gets out. From there the film becomes a story about media. Television comes. The house is besieged. Coo is put on a programme. The crowds grow. Everyone wants to see him. What the narrative is interested in is not a legend but attention: its idea is that a living thing becomes an object of interest and that the interest harms it. There is violence. One scene concerns what happens to the dog and the narrative softens nothing. Coo's past is told as well. His father was killed by a samurai centuries ago. A decision is made at the end. The running time is long; over two hours, unusual for children's animation. The source is Masao Kogure's children's books. Keiichi Hara directed. Kazato Tomizawa, Takahiro Yokokawa and Naoki Tanaka are in the voice cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes Japanese animation and films about the relation between people and nature. Who it is not for: anyone expecting lightness; the narrative is long, heavy, and some scenes are hard for children.