Grave of the Fireflies

Rating:
Summary: Rosebud is his sled.
Review: gsklee, you spoiled the film in the first paragraph of your review. Thanks, genius!

Rated three stars because I've never seen the film, and won't bother to now.

Rating:
Summary: Grave of the Reviews
Review: The few people who have a negative perception of this movie base their dislike on the conflict between the boy and his aunt. One person said that much of the city was untouched, and that others could have helped them. But with war, it is always shelter that is easy to rebuild, and food that is hard. Another mentioned that the boy could have apologized to the aunt, and that he could have worked. Again, this person has a delusional perception of the economics of war. You have to realize that the food he brought his aunt was utterly priceless at the time. Really, I was expecting him to get mugged for it. She even makes reference that, "... You can't get this for ANYTHING." And even if the boy had been able to find a job (unlikely at best), he would have been lucky to earn enough to buy one loaf of bread a week.

The third, and most insultingly stupid complaint about I've heard about the film was that its director made no reference to Japanese agression. You can study history all you like, and you can lend whichever hues please you most to certain politcal positions, but the only heroes and villains of war are those who make decisions. After them, all others are either soldiers or victims. That is what this movie is trying to say. The characters could just as easily have been German, British, French, Russian... you get the point. I hope.

Rating:
Summary: More a soap opera than a war story
Review: First I want to say that I like 99% of Anime and love Hayao Miyazaki films. But the more I think about this movie the less I like it.

It is more about the weird conflict between a boy and his aunt and a country that seems filled with selfish people. I don't know about what Japan view of social charity was, but large parts of the town are untouched. At the end many people are acting like they have been on vacation rather than in a war. Why couldn't one of these families help? Would they let 4 year die even if the brother was a bit of a jerk?

I could go on, but let me say I agree with several of the negative reviews. Overall the movie relies on too many convenient coincidences and characters that don't wash.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful, riveting, instant Top 10 war film classic, period.
Review: Successful war films need not need depict violence and bloodshed to immerse its audience - no doubt, Grave of the Fireflies is a prime example. But Fireflies belongs in a category all its own; this is traditional anime where the coarse animation and visual weight do not overshadow the underlying thematic messages of tragedy and lost innocence.

Fireflies is captivating in one sense because it is an entirely self-reflective war film. Unlike Hollywood cinema that glorifies and rationalizes wartime events, this Japanese film makes no such commentary. There is no direct reference to who the real enemy is, even though the bomber planes are used as a powerful plot device. Instead, Fireflies focuses entirely on the struggles of two characters caught in the middle, a surprisingly uncommon and underappreciated perspective for American cinema standards. Merely watching this film from this standpoint makes it a war film entirely refreshing, poignant, and uplifting.

I found the animation to be sub-par when compared to more celebrated anime (Spirited Away, Ghost in the Shell, Princess Mononoke), yet I found that to be more compelling. Visually, everything in Fireflies is coarse, dilapidated and impoverish. The color palette of browns and grays is wonderfully lifeless and unspoken. The backgrounds are largely unfilled and conservative in decoration; in this case, less is clearly more. While the trademark bug-eyed characters and exaggerated facial features are still present, one can easily notice the growing burden of war in their wearied faces by the film's end.

One should not come away from this film focusing on plot development or characterization. This isn't a film about judging characters for their inabilities or human faults. Instead it is about what is heartfelt, empathizing Seita for his efforts, realizing the children's limitations and the confines of victims who are surrounded by cruelty both seen and unseen. To understand that the tragedy was inescapable and that lifelong remorse is worse than death is to fully appreciate the film's message. The fact that Fireflies is based closely on true events does not make it any more believable or touching.

In terms of both pacing and emotional weight, Fireflies requires tremendous patience. This is a feeling movie, not one of actions and dramatic sequences. Regardless of whether you are fond of anime, this is a gritty work that attempts extremely high standards - and pulls it off.

Rating:
Summary: Resonance
Review: I watched it the second time one night last week since the first time years ago. I remembered it was a sad, sad story (I probably was on the verge of crying while watching it back then) but had no idea what new impact I would feel watching it the second time round.

I found myself crying like a hurt person throughout most of the film. I couldn't explain it to myself, much less my wife (when I told her about the experience the next day). There were parts of the show where I cried so whole-heartedly and so hard my heart hurt literally (e.g. seeing the worsening rashes on Setsuko's back; how she slipped away from life's suffering - but not before thanking her brother for the little bit of water melon he brought her for the last time). I can't stop my eyes from swelling with tears even as I'm typing this.

I was a carefree student years ago when I watched it the first time but now I'm a working father with a 16 months old daughter. Circumstances have changed. I have grown. Something stirred in me while watching the film that I can't pinpoint. Perhaps I see my baby daughter in Setsuko and "resonate" with her innocence and suffering. Perhaps I see myself in Seita for the frustration and helplessness in not being a fantastic brother to my own sister. This film opens the door to an emotional depth that I have yet to come to terms with.

It may open the door for you too.

Rating:
Summary: The newest entry on my 100-best list.
Review: Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1988)

There are nine animated films on IMDB's top 250 of all time list (as of this writing). As one can surmise with a little reflection, the majority of them are new releases that have gotten, perhaps, an overenthusiastic response (this is also true of live-action films; Pirates of the Caribbean, of all things, is swimming around in the lower ranks as I type this). It takes a true classic to stay in the list if it's over ten years old. When you narrow it down like that, only three films remain. Two are Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Fantasia. The third is Grave of the Fireflies.

Takahata's tale follows a young brother and sister, Seita and Setsuko, through the last days of World War II. During an air raid, they're separated from their mother (their father is serving in the Imperial Navy), who is injured when her shelter is bombed. She ultimately perishes, and with their mother dead and their father off fighting the war, Seita and Setsuko are forced to make their way as best they can, scrabbling for what little food they can find and having only each other for solace.

From the very first scene, it's easy to tell that Grave of the Fireflies is not your usual animated film, of either the Japanese (big robots battling one another, big-breasted bimbos having fun, or a combination of both) or American (standard, usually brainless, kid stuff) fare. For that matter, it's not the nonstandard fare (American Pop, Fritz the Cat) that pops up every once in a while. It's something completely different; a tense, devastating drama told in animation, perhaps simply because a live action film couldn't portray the devastation of the last few days before Japan surrendered with quite the same empty hopelessness as does the stark, beautiful animation with which we are presented here.

Grab a box of Kleenex before watching this film. You'll need it. But if you've never seen it, do whatever you need to do to see it as soon as possible. **** ½

Rating:
Summary: To those who criticized the boy's laziness and inability...
Review: ...you absolutely haven't realized what the film wanted to express thoroughly. I was shocked and could not move myself from the sofa even though the film have ended. The deep affection between the brother and the sister was touching, and heartbreaking. My tear burst out when the boy gazed at his sister's face sadly before he closed the lid and cremated her.

It was said in the film that most of the villages and factories and schools in Japan have been destroyed near the end of WWII; the food supplies have run short, money and well clothing meant nothing. Yes, of course, the boy Seita could join the self-defense corps and earned something to eat, but how 'bout his sister Setsuko? He could not take care of her if he joined the army, just like his father. He could not leave her behind in the aunt's house either, because without the protection from him that ...aunt will no doubt treat his sister in a harsher way. And he chose to leave the house because his sister did not live a happy life there; have you forgotten that the one who talked about the leaving first was his sister? And YOU speaked like the brother's profound love toward his sister was just nothing more than an act of cowardice! Than I most say I feel SHAMEFUL for you because you could not even match up to a 14-year-old boy! Mind you this film was based on a true story of the writer himself, and he said during an interview that he never stoped blaming himself for unable to save his little sister's life.

This film tried telling us the cruel reality of war from the views of two innocent children. If you could not empathize with their situation, and just keep saying that this was a silly story, then I will tell you it was not because of the film; it was because of you, who refused to know about this film better.

Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointing..
Review: I bought this movie expecting a "powerful antiwar film has been praised by critics wherever it has been screened around the world," as Amazon's editorial review refers to it. While it could possibly be viewed as a film about some of the less admirable aspects of human nature, the context and presentation of the film's content is far from an antiwar movie.

The film follows a young boy and his much younger sister after their home is destroyed in a bombing, though it feels pointless from the start as the opening scene of the movie lets you know that they will both be dead by the end.

In the early stages of the movie, the boy and his sister stay with relatives since their house has been destroyed in a bombing, relatives who obviously resent their presence.

However, despite the boy's refusal to work or do anything but play with his sister (this is the relative's only reason for resenting having to feed and house them) it's made to seem tragic when he decides to leave the house rather than help support himself. The official editorial refers to the aunt who is most vocal about her resent at having to care for the two as "greedy," ignoring the fact that food and resources were scarce at this stage in the war, and all she asks is for the boy to do his share in helping the village to pay for the food and shelter he is being given.

Later in the movie, when his sister becomes sick from malnutrition - this is the supposed saddest part and turning point of the story - the effect is ruined by the fact that the boy could simply have apologized to his relatives, who may not have been happy to take him back, but certainly would have. A farmer even tells the boy this, yet he refuses to return. What follows is no one's fault but his own.

The only emotion this movie inspired in me was a growing frustration at the boy's inablilty to swallow his pride and save his sister's life. There's nothing tragic in a movie about a character who could save his life at any time, but refuses to do so.

The film's heavily biased portrayal of the war is further clouded by the way the plot has less and less to do with the war as the story progresses.

Another phrase the official editorial uses, "the needless suffering endured by [the war's] victims," is another inaccurate portrayal of the story - the suffering of the boy and his sister was certainly needless, but only in the sense that the boy could have stopped it at any time. The war had nothing to do with his decision to suffer and die rather than swallow his pride and do his share.

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest war films ever made...
Review: "Grave of the Fireflies" is the sad tale, based on the semi-autographical book "Hotaru no Haka" by NOSAKA Akiyuki, which tells of the author's experiences during the aftermath of World War II, in which he lost his little sister to malnutrition, for which he blamed himself.

In the movie, 14 year old Seita and his 4 year old sister Setsuko lose their mother after the Allied forces bomb their village. Their father is in the Navy and at sea, and hasn't been heard from in a long while. Without going through the entire plot, suffice it to say that the story is a moving and frightening look back at the lives of two young children who should never have to face such horrors at their tender ages. The tone and mood of this heartwrenching piece is set from the very first scene, when Seita utters the fateful words "September 21st, 1945. That's the day that I died."

Before watching "Grave of the Fireflies" I'd heard that it'd been referred to by many, like movie reviewer Roger Ebert, as one of the greatest war films made, and after watching it, I have to agree. Only a person with the emotional depth of a gnat or the heart of block of wood could watch this film and not feel the emotional power of it. It's the kind of story that lingers in your consciousness long after, and forces you to see the true face of war, the REAL consequences and victims of the violence we seem all too quick to inflict upon each other these days. And the most incredible thing about this movie is its subtleness, its complete lack of political propaganda or any attempt to try to blantantly force a moralistic ideal down the viewers throat. Director Isao Takahata shows supreme trust in the story itself, choosing to use the beautifully illustrated film to portray the tale in all its moving glory.

Rating:
Summary: Japan's "All Quiet on the Western Front"
Review: This is a movie that is based on actual events that transpired in Japan after the Second World War. The characters are fictional, but there are many invisible casualties, children lost and forgotten, that lie behind these characters.

The visual emphasis of the fireflies represents the many bright lights that glow for only a short time before they wither away into extinction.

I saw this movie on VHS in 1993. I was drunk at the time and found it difficult to avoid breaking down during the closing sequences. I failed terribly at it.

Much the same, when Speilberg accepted the Oscar for "Schindler's List", he made a quick statement that we should keep telling this story (the holocaust) and do our best to keep it from ever happening again. The same goes for "Grave of the Fireflies". See this movie, and see what you can do to place it in modern context.

The two children in this movie could just as easily be orphaned refugees in Afganistan or Iraq.

It's something to think about when you pay your taxes.