Grave of the Fireflies

Rating:
Summary: Lest we forget
Review: The narrative of Grave of the Fireflies is simple but the messages behind the anime are plentiful and profound. Based a semi-autobiographical novel by Akiyuki Nosaka - the centers around two children Seita and his 5-year-old sister Setsuka. Rendered homeless by the fire bombing in Kobe and practically orphaned -- their father is serving in the Japanese navy, while conversely, their mother is a killed in the bombings. For the better part of the production an aunt takes care of both of them - for a price. Seita gets the sense and then it is overtly displayed that both he and Setsuka are not really welcome. Seita endeavors to hit hills, to a cave which they make home. Seita scrambles for food - using anything he can find and then eventually deteriorates to stealing. The opening of the film is Seita dead in a subway station, and so we can deduce Setsuko's fate; we get the details by fallowing his flashbacks.

Grave of the Fireflies is many things - primarily the tone would be one of sadness. It is a deeply emotional experience. Having said that, it really sets the tone for the story. Right of the bat, one gets the sense of catharsis, as if the writer of the story is trying to assuage his guilt. Loosely based on Akiyuki Nosaka's war experience (wherein he loses his sister) we are certain to be touched by film's more serious themes - in more ways than one. One gets the sense that the movie is designed to elicit sympathy - hopefully for the universal condition of the toll that war extracts. If I was not moved by it I could not count myself among the humane. As much as it serves to remind us of the suffering in Japan, let this not also blind us to the suffering caused all around Asia - both to and by the Japanese.

There is no doubt that the film is profoundly human. Yes, on another level it is a story of survival. Director Isao Takahata (and Akiyuki Nosaka, of course) compel us to meditate on the suffering in war, the futility of war, and that the most innocent are the ones who suffer most. Cognizant that these are the musings of Akiyuki Nosaka - I am less able to focus on the bigger questions. I am not taking anything away from Grave of the Fireflies - both the depth and the quality of the animation. I love the meditative tone and even fell for the scene that took place one evening when the children capture the fireflies and use them to light the cave. If my memory serves me right, this is the same scene that Setsuka asks Seita about death. On the very next day, Seita finds Setsuka burying the dead fireflies and images of the dead mother flash quickly. Let us not fall into a sense of selective amnesia by choosing to remember one but in so doing tacitly forgetting the others. One could argue that by focusing on the suffering in Japan, the filmmakers are part and parcel of a discourse of victimhood. In war everyone is a victim.

Miguel Llora

Rating:
Summary: Tears
Review: I hears about this movie a week ago and the people that had seen it said it was said...At thaat time i thought i never could drop a tear or to for a movie...But i had wrong...THis was the most heart breaking movie i ever seen...i had the tears coming a long time....I saw i yesterday and i must say im gonna watch it again someday...This movie must be the greatest ever written...=(

Rating:
Summary: A Rare Gem
Review: Embarrassed to say I've never heard of this movie until recently, even though I've seen most of Studio Ghibli's work by now. (I attribute this to the fact that it was released simultaneously with Totoro, kind of like how Forrest Gump completely overshadowed Shawshank Redemption at the box office and Oscar Awards.)

I just saw this movie for the first time tonight. Although my heart is torn to shreds right now, I can't explain how glad I am to have seen it.

I visited Amazon to check how other people responded to this movie and am glad to find that there are 374 reviews. On top of this, I believe I haven't seen a single 3-star rating across the board. It's almost all 5-stars peppered with occasional 1-stars. Any movie that creates this kind of strong reaction proves how thought-provoking, emotional and powerful it is. You might love it or even hate it, but you can't ignore it.

I find it interesting that some reviewers gave 1-star because they were frustrated by questionable decisions made by Seita throughout the movie. I think that was one of the director's point and it made the movie even stronger. A 14-year-old boy probably can't always make the best decision and he inevitably ends up being another victim of the War. Which is tragic, and tragedy is the point.

Aside from many of the positive comments by other reviewers which I largely agree with, one aspect of the movie that struck me was that I felt like I was watching a movie through a point of view of someone who was really there. (I wasn't surprised to find out Takahata is a survivor, himself.)

I believe I've never seen a war-themed movie that portrayed, very believably, how surreal it is to be right in the middle of a major war. Mr. Takahata's portrayal of fire-bomb attacks at the beginning of the movie -- how it starts off rather harmlessly with bombs rolling off the roofs of neighborhood houses -- was absolutely brilliant. I also appreciate the fact that I was listening to civilians' little remarks, which illustrated their frustrations, helplessness and apathy, instead of listening to screaming people running around aimlessly like they do in most movies during battle scenes.

A beautifully haunting gut-wrenching movie -- a work of art. I hope more people will see it.

By the way, I found it sad that some reviewers thought this movie wrongly portrayed the Japanese, who were the aggressors of the War, as victims -- that Seita and Setsuko didn't deserve any pity. All I have to say about that is if you don't have the compassion to feel the pain for others, you don't deserve the compassion you're seeking from others.

Rating:
Summary: A True Tragedy...
Review: Setsuko and Seita are two surviving children who have lost their mother and father in the war. The children are left by themselves and are first taken care of by some relatives. However, the children recognize that they are unwanted and used by the relatives so they end up leaving. They then seek shelter in an old bomb shelter which becomes their home. As the two children enjoy each others company, they are running out of food and drink and as the story unfolds the audience can see that the their essential needs are being stripped away by the post-war environment that surrounds them. Grave of the Fireflies is a dark tragedy about children who are forced into a situation that they cannot handle which causes the audience to become teary eyed. As tears are shed in a safe environment, one cannot help to succumb to the film's power and message as it leaves the audience pondering a brilliant cinematic experience. 

Rating:
Summary: A great film . . . with minor caveats
Review: This is without doubt one of the most touching films I saw. I shed many tears while watching the suffering of the children.

The dramatic quality of this film has been covered more than adequately in the many reviews on this subject, so I will not add more.

However, I do have a reservation about the characterization of this film as one of the greatest anti-war film ever made.

My position is not based on the dramatic quality of this film, but is rather based on politics, so I apologize in advance for digressing somewhat.

I have no doubt that this a great anti-war to the WESTERN audience who are fully aware of the historical underpinnings of the film. But to a JAPANESE audience, the original intended audience of the film, this film merely perpetuates a disturbing tendency of the Japanese to refuse acknowledgment for their responsibility in WWII.

Japanese textbooks do not address in any detail their responsibility for starting the war and the criminal and homicidal acts that their army perpetuated upon the civilian population and allied POWs, where millions and millions of Chinese were butchered.

Japanese educational textbooks tends to concentrate all their coverage of WWII on the suffering of the civilian population during the war. I am not saying that there shouldn't be such coverage, but it is not right to concentrate on that one topic alone. In this respect this film is the same. It concentrates its attention on the suffering of the two children during the war.

This attitude to refuse to accept responsibility and to concentrate on the sacrifices of the people is also seen in the annual visit by the Japanese prime minister to the war dead shrine, which is also enshrined with the names of convicted war criminals such as Tojo. Despite protests by nations such as China and Korea, the visits have continued on the basis that they honor the sacrifices made by the war dead.

The film starts off with the firebombing of Tokyo by American B-29 bombers, and American air raids are a constant theme in the film. The Americans were also responsible for killing their father who served in a navy cruiser.

So I am afraid that a typical Japanese may draw the wrong conclusions about the film and partially blame the Americans for the suffering of the children, and not at their own government.

Some may say this is a semi-autobiography of a Japanese writer, and from the perspective of the children, they will not know who is responsible for their suffering. But I think to be an effective anti-war film for the Japanese, the filmmaker could have easily delivered the same story by making it take place in a hypothetical setting, or at a place like Russia or China where the civilians truly suffered.

However, if not for this "crown of thorns" title of it being one of the best anti-war movies, this movies stands very very well on its own.

Rating:
Summary: Poetic
Review: All of you criticize and analyze this work, and that's fine, but there's one thing you're forgetting that you need to remember.

Anime touches all of us because we don't have that window of saying "They're real people with other lives, this isn't actually happening to them." that we have with live action movies -- we can always call it a cartoon and say it isn't real...

But it is, and those of us who appreciate Anime know it.

However, even people who see this part of a work have forgotten that while anime is, in a way, real, it at the same time is poetic, symbolizing various articles and the like, using techniques live actions can't in good conscience use.

But the biggest point is that it's poetic in that way, and that everything should be taken poetically.

This is a powerful movie; I saw Saishuu Heiki Kanojo (SaiKano) before watching this movie, so one would expect that after seeing such a harsh movie that Grave of the Fireflies wouldn't affect me quite so much...

Those expectations were wrong. This is a beautiful work that I find hard to call a work; it almost seems to be in it's own subcategory of anime because of the way it works, because of the way the story is told. People complain about the characters being this or that, but if taken poetically this work will fulfill its purpose:

To paint a picture of war, how it affects those we never think about.

Five Stars, I recommend this to All. If you don't have a heart of steel like mine, you may want to bring some tissures...

"September, 1945...the day that I died..."

Rating:
Summary: Amazing, moving, realistic masterwork. A classic.
Review: I was afraid to see this movie because I don't like sad ones, but If there's something I will never regret of, is having watched it.
I still can't believe how by using only drawings, someone could express so well the cruelty of war. This movie shows the point of view of the innocent ones. The atrocity of war through the eyes of two children.
I highly recommend this movie. The animation is excellent. It's a masterpiece, a timeless classic. I am very glad I bought it.

Rating:
Summary: "Why do fireflies have to die so soon?"
Review: Studio Ghibli is a name that is synonymous with words like, "beautiful," "creative," "magical" and "inventive." The popular Japanese animation studio has put forth works such as, "Kiki's Delivery Service," "Princess Mononoke," "Laputa: Castle in the Sky," "My Neighbor Totoro" and their latest work to be released in America, "Spirited Away." However, perhaps the most well-known (in teachers circles anyway), is Isao Takahata's 1988 masterpiece "Grave of the Fireflies."

"Grave of the Fireflies" takes place in Japan during World War II, during the last weeks of the war. Brother and sister, Seita and Setsuko, lose their mother during an air raid due to severe bodily burns. They are then forced to live with an aunt who is uncompassionate and ignorant to their situation. Here we begin to see the sad and slow deterioration of their circumstances.

Their aunt doesn't feel that the siblings have earned their stay at her home; in fact on the first night there she doesn't even feed them. When they trade their dead mothers' kimonos for rice (a valuable commodity), she gives half to them while keeping the rest for her family and herself. She even uses up most of the supplies that Seita brings from his old home, claiming that Seita and Setsuko are ungrateful "brats."

It is at this point that Seita feels it is time to leave, so he moves Setsuko and himself from the house to an old bomb-shelter nearby. Here they try to make a home; living near a pond that is lit at night by the glow of fireflies.

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of this movie is that of human circumstance, and animation is the greatest medium for articulating this. No fancy lights. No special effects. There are only a pen and pencil between the writers visions and the screen. It is because of the animation that the true essence of the film is allowed to shine. Takahata is able to build the characters, Seita and Setsuko, up using "little" scenes that are usually cut out of a big-production film. By utilizing these scenes Takahata makes the characters more "human," and therefore more capable of re- and obtaining human emotions.

There are many underlying themes in "Grave of the Fireflies." Most of them are symbolically embedded in objects, emotions, and events throughout the film. But these are the ones I find most predominant.

First off is that of the tin can containing the fruit drops. Almost every time the young Setsuko cries, Seita is able to calm her by giving her a fruit drop. The fruit drops hereby abilitating him to comfort her without using the emotion of comfort. Towards the end of the movie, Setsuko begins to fall under the whimsy of malnutrition; which is reflected through her spreading rashes and diarrhea. Little by little, Seita runs out of fruit drops to give her, and by the end of the movie Setsuko begins to suck on marbles. It is only then that Seita begins to realize that he should have invested emotions not "fruit drops" towards Setsuko's problems.

Secondly and the most importantly is that of ignorance. In "Grave of the Fireflies" we find that the siblings are put into a situation; one that is not uncommon in the world today. Millions of children are left starving and alone, without parents to care for them. Isao Takahata has simply given us a different standpoint to observe the problem of ignorance from. This "ignorance" of which I speak is violently evident throughout the movie. First, is that of Seita's fantasy that Setsuko and he are living well off; until the end of the movie. Second, is that of the aunt's ignorance and illcompassion for the sibling duo; if she had shown more compassion Seita and Setsuko would, most likely, never have moved into the bomb shelter where they met their early graves. Also, there is a scene in the beginning in which the people of the subway in which Seita is sitting pass him by while uttering uncompassionate comments under their breaths . . .

"These bums are a disgrace. . ."

And this leads me to the movies' message that seems to be more of a question. What can we do as a society to prevent these types of situations in which young children die? With the use of the movie, Isao Takahata has shown us that children die as a result of ignorance. Leaving us with one undeniable conclusion that if we have not learned that from this movie, then we have not understood our own selves.

There is one particular scene in the movie in which Seita catches a firefly and gives it to Setsuko who consequently "catches" it to hard and squashes it. Seita playfully responds, "You gotta be more gentle." Our lives are like that of the fireflies; they flicker for a brief moment then go as easily and quietly as they came. If were not gentle enough they'll never get their chance to shine

SPOILER ALERT:
At the very end of the movie what may be called the spirits of Seita and a sleepy Setsuko look out over a modern and vitalized city. But a question lingers in Seitas' eyes, "will anyone help us?"

A good question Mr. Takahata . . . a good question . . .

Rating:
Summary: A True Story
Review: What many of the negative reviewers and people who think it seems like a soap opera are forgetting (or perhaps did not know) is that it is based on a true story. The boy in the film IS the auther of the story.
This is a great film, about the real victims of war. It is extremely well done.

Rating:
Summary: Pesty
Review: It pains me to say this but that little kid has a voice that annoyed me to hell and I could care less if that damn village was bombed or not. I believe cartoons can be just as moving and poignant as live action movies but Grave of the Fireflies is manipulative, self-pitying soap opera tripe from a real saphead.