‘Cells at Work!’ REVIEW: A Blood-Rushing and Adrenaline-Pumping Campy Adventure
‘Cells at Work!’ REVIEW: A Blood-Rushing and Adrenaline-Pumping Campy Adventure
PICTURE 1: Erythrocyte AE3803 (Mei Nagano) and Neutrophil U-1146 (Takeru Satoh)/ Taken from The Walt Disney Studios
Cells at Work! is an adaptation of a popular Japanese Manga created by Akane Shimizu. Under the direction of Hideki Takeuchi, the film features the cells within our bodies personified and portrayed as fully-formed people of their own as our bodily function translates mundane human activities and typical jobs for them to keep the body operating.
For the premise of the movie, the focus is on the relationship between a single red blood cell with the codename Erythrocyte AE3803 (Mei Nagano) and a white blood cell named Neutrophil U-1146 (Takeru Satoh). The energy is nothing short of the typical older brother-younger sister dynamic from most animes — at least from my perspective — however, there is a possibility for it to be viewed through a romantic lens based on how they interact.
The film's first moments introduce us to the cells inside Niko (Mana Ashida), giving us a glimpse of how our body is reimagined as human places. We see AE3803, born in Red Bone Marrow Land, which marks the beginning of her adventure. We see her grow quickly and encounter U-1146 as it protects her from an attack by foreign microorganisms entering the body. This incident, as their first interaction, created an invisible string connecting AE3803 and U-1146 and is basically the very foundation of the film’s premise, allowing them to interact in the future despite the body having about 37 trillion cells making it. Our red blood cell protagonist promises the young white blood cell that she will be a worthy and competitive red blood cell when they see each other again.
Time jumps, and we see AE3803 going on with the day and trying to do her bodily function programmed job of delivering oxygen to the body and taking carbon dioxide to exit the lungs. Here, she bumps into U-1146 several times as the film tries to create scenarios that usually happen to our bodies where the white blood cells’ function comes into play. Niko experiences things that will make her body cope, whether catching a simple cold, getting wounded, or experiencing other things our bodies are subjected to. We see how our bodies adapt to these abrupt changes portrayed in the campiest way possible. The conflict shows how our body suffers from change that is so abrupt or sometimes even inevitable that it will lead the cells into a frenzy.
Uncomplicated obtrusions come and go, and Niko’s cells are able to mend the situation independently and coordinate their functions from outside elements. Instead, in this scenario, the film asks: what if your own body turns against you? A young white blood cell that looks up to U-1146 turns out to be abnormal and needs to be terminated immediately so as not to cause any more complicated issues. The young white blood cell, with his dreams being shattered, mutates into a cancer cell (Satoshi Fukase), which is the start of what people basically know in real life as leukemia, or the cancer of the blood. The cancer cell then starts to avenge himself and goes on a rampage, killing the body on a cellular level, little by little.
Given the scientific material it is based on, the film’s message is already educational. It mainly wants to convey to the audience that there is no such thing as a useless role. It somehow enforces the notion of one’s self’s contribution to our society; whether you feel worthless or are doing little to nothing, you are essential to the team's progress — in real life’s case, society. The collective effort of a community can move mountains or, in the cell’s scenario, keep the body alive.
Although the material may come across as shallow at times, the campy and outrageous depiction of scientific scenarios easily complements it. The motivation for the villain cannot be helped since there is no emotional motivation behind how a cancer cell should work. The writers obviously did their best to substantiate the story enough, and the director navigated the tale the most efficiently he could despite the inevitable limits of the material. Overall, the experience in the theater was exhilarating and delightful to watch. This film is equal parts informative, heartwarming, and fun to watch.
‘Cells at Work!’ is now showing in SM Cinemas.
