Final Rating: 4.5/5
The human body is a miracle of evolution. Containing over 37 trillion cells, our bodies work so well we usually take them for granted. That’s because each cell has a role to play, and only by each doing its part in tandem with the others can a healthy, functioning body be maintained. With so many cells doing so many extremely specific things, it can be difficult to fully grasp what actually goes on inside the human body.
Cells At Work, directed by Hideki Takeuchi and based on the series by Akane Shimizu, tackles this problem by imagining the body as a bustling society. Each cell is a person with a job to do – a literal Cell At Work – and together, they ensure the well-being of the city and its citizens. The analogy is highly educationally effective, while lending itself to a variety of hilarious gags. The result is one of the funniest films of the year, that also makes the audience feel smarter in the process.
Cells takes place primarily in the city of Red Bone Marrow. Red blood cells – portrayed by young men and women in jeans and red blazers – carry cardboard boxes labeled “CO2” as they all shuffle out one side of the city. Opposite them, another line of red blood cells goes by carrying canisters of oxygen.
In much smaller numbers among the crowd, enforcers dressed head to toe in white, mill about looking for troublemakers. These are the white blood cells, the body’s primary defense mechanism.
Each cell is distinctive, most immediately characterized through their outfits. Killer T-Cells, one of the body’s defense mechanisms, are portrayed as a large group of hyper masculine policemen dressed in riot gear. Platelets, a type of cell responsible for reconstructing the body after injuries like scrapes, are elementary-school-aged children with building supplies.
Illnesses stand out as well, each depicted as a monster-of-the-week style villain. Streptococcus pneumoniae (Pneumonia) is a purple, tentacled, high-voiced humanoid with a knack for contorting itself to hide from white blood cells. Pollen is depicted as aloof giants, dangerous more because they get in everyone’s way than due to any malicious intent. Like the body’s cells, illnesses have a job to do, which is usually just killing cells.
Cells’ greatest strength is in leaning into the silliness of its body-as-a-collectivist-society metaphor to illustrate various anatomical scenarios. For example, when Pneumonia is finally located by the white blood cell, he’s captured and placed into a rocket, which is then fired away from the city and detonated in the air. Less colourfully, the pneumonia cells were expelled via sneeze.
What are the effects of an adrenaline rush? What happens when you’re trying to hold in poop until you can find a bathroom? What would donating blood look like from the perspective of blood cells? These are just a few scenarios making up some of Cells’ funniest scenes.
To get to those scenes, Cells includes an external story featuring a high-schooler, Niko (Mana Ashida), and her less-than-healthy father Shigeru (Sadao Abe). Niko dreams of going to medical school but worries about her father’s poor health. Shigeru meanwhile works long shifts as a truck driver to put money away for Niko while neglecting his high cholesterol and blood pressure and sneaking out for drinks with his coworkers. Though the two usually butt heads, each gets a few moments of vulnerability to show how much the other means to them.
Among the cells, the main characters are a red blood cell played by Mei Nagano, and a white blood cell played by Takeru Satoh. Cells act more predictably than the human characters, but the filmmakers impressively endear each to the audience regardless. Despite their different roles, the white blood cell acts as a mentor to the red blood cell, reassuring her about the importance of her work. He also narrates some of the more esoteric-seeming situations the two end up in, teaching both the red blood cell and the audience about the inner workings of the human body.
Cells At Work is narratively and morally uncomplicated in the interest of education and comedy. At the latter, it totally succeeds. Cells is a hilarious film with a heart, and a brain… and 37 trillion cells doing the job they were born to do.
Cells At Work was seen during the 2025 Toronto Japanese Film Festival.
