Chirin no Suzu - Ringing Bell

Chirin no Suzu (Chirin's Bell) is a short animated movie adaption of a picture book from 1978.
It's a bittersweet story about a sheep named Chirin and how he gets consumed by his own negative thoughts.
I can't remember when I first saw this movie, but I can say I have loved it for a loooong time!

Maybe it's because I'm such a pessimist myself?

The story starts relatively happy. Chirin is a young lamb living with his mother and other sheep on a pasture. His mother worries for him since Chirin has a tendency to wander off. That's why he was given a bell so that he could be found easier because of the sound. Chirin's mother explains to him, that the sheep cannot go beyond the fence because a wolf named Woe is living on the nearby mountain. Chirin is naive and doesn't really take his mother's warning to the heart, but promises to obey anyway.

Months go by and one autumn night the wolf attacks the sheep that are sleeping in the barn. Chirin's mother dies shielding him from the wolf's attack. Angry and consumed by grief, Chirin decides to follow the wolf to the mountain to kill it as a revenge. The small lamb manages to find the wolf but Woe ignored Chirin's demand to return his mother to him and with a single whip of his tail, the wolf sends Chirin tumbling down to a gorge. The next day Chirin begs the wolf to take him as his apprentice since he doesn't want to be a weak sheep and would rather be a strong wolf.

After Chirin followed the wolf for days, Woe finally promises to teach Chirin how to be a wolf. Woe's teaching methods are cruel but Chirin stubbornly keeps pushing forward. He did whatever the wolf commanded because he doesn't want to stay sheltered and die without trying to change his fate like the other sheep. 

In 3 years, Chirin had become a beast. He is very proud of his transformation, saying he no longer fears death. He finally reveals to Woe he only lived and trained to kill him. But after 3 years of living together with the wolf on the harsh mountains, Chirin has started to care for Woe and now views him as his father. The duo becomes infamous killers and terrorizes the area around the mountain. They end up on Chirin's old home farm, but Chirin denies the place as his home.

 To test him Woe orders him to first kill the guard dogs and slaughter all the sheep that are sleeping in the barn. Chirin attacks the dogs without any hesitation but when he gets inside the barn he sees a mother sheep trying to protect her lamb and is reminded of his own mother sacrificing herself. He runs out of the barn and is confronted by Woe who decides to finish the job himself. Chirin and Woe fight and Chirin ends up impaling the wolf with his horns. But even after the other sheep saw Chirin defeat the wolf, they do not accept him and fear him instead. The farm really is no longer Chirin's home and he has no other option than to return to the mountain. Chirin has no idea what to do with himself now and his story ends with him sadly calling for Woe.

The movie is slightly different from the book it was adapted from, but the message stays the same. After his mother is killed Chirin is crippled with survivor's guilt. However, even after he kills her murderer as revenge, Chirin doesn't feel any better afterward. He ends up confused because he cannot return to his old life as a farm animal but doesn't wish to stay alone on the mountain either.

The movie ends with a sad song about Chirin. After his presumed death, nothing really changed. His suffering didn't leave a lasting impact on anyone around him. His only legacy was a spooky saying: "Even though Chirin is never seen again, the faint sound of his bell can still be heard on stormy nights."