The idea of flashback through one’s life is a seriously overexplored storytelling technique by now, however, The House Of Small Cubes executes it in a near-perfect way.

Living in a town steadily being submerged, a widower is forced to keep adding levels to his house, always keeping a trap door to the lower floors. After losing his pipe, he decided to journey down the house, bringing back memories of his life.

Kunio Kato’s animation is incredibly beautiful, truly nothing will ever compete with the use of hand drawings for an emotional punch. In here, it is also accompanied by Kenji Kondo’s subtle, yet memorable, score that fits the contemplative nature of the short like a glove.

There’s not much else I can say in a spoiler free review. It’s 12 minutes long with no dialogue and it’s on Netflix. Just watch it.