Call Me Chihiro comes from Japan. It’s a soft film full of kindnesses and love. There are no action scenes, simply a woman moving quietly through her life alone, spreading happiness to those around her. There are some spoilers ahead.

Call Me Chihiro stars Kasumi Arimura as Chihiro. She’s a bright penny in a dull world. She works in a bento shop. Before that she was a sex worker, something she freely tells people when they ask her what she did before.

Chihiro’s loneliness runs deep. It permeates the story like a suppressed sob. It contrasts with the way the people she meets love and respect her. She befriends a hungry little boy whose mother works late, two awkward teens who love manga, a homeless old man, a frazzled mother, the blind mother of the people who run the bento shop, and more.

She feeds all these people, cares for them. But in a detached and remote way. When her brother calls to tell her their mother died she doesn’t react to the news in any way. She tells her brother she won’t go to the funeral, but much later in the story she goes alone to her mother’s grave with a special gift.

There are a few flashbacks, not many. In one we see a very young and lonely little girl who meets a kind sex worker called Chihiro. She praises the little girl and when the girl grows up she remembers the kindness and uses Chihiro as her nickname.

No one is a stranger to her. She can handle anything, especially unruly men. The film is over two hours long and based on a manga series.

Near the end there’s a beautiful scene on the roof of the bento shop. All the people Chihiro has befriended in her job there are gathered together for a meal. I wanted that to be the end, with her surrounded by love. But she walked away, alone, to begin again. At least in her new life when someone asks what she did before, she can answer, “I worked in a bento shop.”

Check out the trailer.

Obviously, this movie isn’t going to be for everyone. It’s a character study steeped in Japanese culture. But if you are one of the people who enjoy films like this, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you watch it. The comments are open.

Call Me Chihiro is streaming on Netflix.