“This island is always so beautiful and warm. I imagine it’s what heaven would be like,” San, the meek protagonist of “Cocoon — One Summer of Girlhood,” says to her friend Mayu at the opening of the film. The two are sitting on a meadow speckled with flowers, looking out at a serene sky hanging over a shimmering ocean. But there’s no heaven wherever humans take up arms against one another.
This succinct but quietly devastating antiwar drama tells a tragic story of patriotism and loss through the viewpoint of a girl in Okinawa, Japan, during World War II.
The debut feature from director Yukimitsu Ina, “Cocoon” is based on a manga by Machiko Kyo inspired by the real-life events of the Himeyuri Corps: a group of students and teachers of two all-girl schools mobilized to help nurse members of the Imperial Army during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Though the group was told they’d be safe from the conflict, many died under the terrible conditions they faced after they were sent to an active battlefield. Others killed themselves, fearing rape and torture by enemy forces.
In “Cocoon,” San, Mayu and their classmates have sacrificed their childhood summer for the sake of aiding their country, but, at least for the first few minutes of the film, they don’t seem too burdened by their duties. A bit bored, maybe. They have their work shifts and responsibilities, with some schooling squeezed in when possible. But with the sighting of an airplane the reality of their situation becomes more clear: Everyone immediately scatters and hides, and even the tools and work stations are hurriedly covered in camouflage. Soon the girls are enlisted to work in a new makeshift hospital in one of the island’s caves, but they’re physically and emotionally overwhelmed by the work as the bodies mount and the front lines creep ever closer.
The film’s title refers to what San learns about the lives of silkworms, which are boiled in their cocoon stage so their silk can be used for clothing and fabrics. It’s the central metaphor of the film, referring to the sacrifices these students made. Though rendered a bit heavy-handedly for such an abbreviated film, the metaphor is nevertheless a clever way to talk about San’s struggle to understand her role in service of a country demanding unquestionable loyalty in the face of death and terror.
What little we see of the girls’ daily lives before the onslaught — their jokes among themselves, their little celebrations, their friendships, their crushes — is just enough to make what later happens all the more upsetting. While it would be easy for “Cocoon” to indulge in gratuitous wartime horror, its grisliest moments are instead filtered through San’s fearful imagination.
The film’s backgrounds include verdant forests and the wrecked buildings of a village, all illustrated like paintings by a team that includes veteran Studio Ghibli animators. And in the foreground of this vivid scenery we see girls getting attacked by gunfire in moments that beautifully, heart-rendingly, recall classical artworks capturing nymphs in the midst of transformation. Their bodies seem to be caught mid-flight, with their blood transformed into flower petals; San sees the violence unfold like the sudden eruption of spring.
So the most remarkable part of “Cocoon” is not just how neatly it tells a wartime story, but how tastefully it tells a story of the girls cut down before blooming during that brutal summer.
Cocoon — One Summer of Girlhood Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 3 minutes. In theaters.
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