Everything should have a chance at love, even the smallest creature we meet should have the chance to find a soul mate to live ever after. Love Is Just A Death Away shows us how it’s possible for a cute-looking parasite that only wants to find the one to grow with.

Situated in a local garbage dump, we get to see how a cunning parasite searches for a way to survive inside the carcass of a dog. No matter how many times it tries to find the right thing to move on with to the next stage of its life, it doesn’t seem to find one any time soon.

I’m a sucker for anything that has an accordion in its soundtrack and, from beginning to end, this film overuses it in the music as an element that describes the romantic partner the parasite is looking for and the one that goes away due to the fact that it accidentally provokes their departure or is cajoled by the selfish motives of the transitory characters.

The colors are beautiful. It has such a delicate mix without saturating the screen with vivid or flashy splashes— it only cares about keeping a warm image to feel relieved by the plot. The character designs are not as visually striking or creative; it seems to be something seen before. Still, this doesn’t detract from the impact the short story has, especially when it gratefully owns a coherent sequence in its story marking the moments where each part begins and ends.

Love Is Just A Death Away is a wonderful stop-motion story of love, evolution and death. If you end up in a trance in which you find yourself sentimental after the conclusion of the story, do yourself a favor and stop everything at 9:14— officially that’s where it ends and the credits roll but the closing soundtrack plays abruptly and erases every emotion you had to suddenly pull you down from cloud nine.

9 OUT OF 10 MOTHS