Studio: Adv Films Release Date: 07/07/2009 Run time: 89 minutesIsao Takahata’s powerful antiwar film has been praised by critics wherever it has been screened around the world. When their mother is killed in the firebombing of Tokyo near the end of World War II, teenage Seita and his little sister Setsuko are left on their own: their father is away, serving in the Imperial Navy. The two children initially stay with an aunt, but she has little affection for them and resents the time and money they require. The two children set up housekeeping in a cave by a stream, but their meager resources are quickly exhausted, and Seita is reduced to stealing to feed his sister.
The strength of Grave of the Fireflies lies in Takahata’s evenhanded portrayal of the characters. A sympathetic doctor, the greedy aunt, the disinterested cousins all know there is little they can do for Seita and Setsuko. Their resources, like their country’s, are already overtaxed: anything they spare endangers their own survival. As in the Barefoot Gen films, no mention is made of Japan’s role in the war as an aggressor; but the depiction of the needless suffering endured by its victims transcends national and ideological boundaries. –Charles Solomon
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April 1, 2008
#1
to tell you guys the truth i fell asleep after the americans bombed the japanese and their mom died. woot! this show was so boring. the first time i saw it and hopefully the last was when i was in history class my teacher was teaching us about world war 2 and a student brought in this movie and everybody hated it including the teacher we ended up not finishing it and watched something alot better. i have watched some animes like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away and cant say im impressed mostly likely because they are unrealistic. i have been a big fan of anime since i was like 6 if your looking for something better i recommend trigun, r.o.d., samurai champloo, appleseed, gunslinger girl, cowboy bebop, ghost in the shell, and inu yasha.
April 1, 2008
#2
horrid movie. i can’t believe how disappointed i am in this anime. i had heard so much about it and how it is a story that is at the same time most touching and sad. but it’s not. the little girl annoyed me so much. i just can’t stand spoilt kids like that and seita probably would not have died if it had not been for her. omg she just annoyed me so much throughout the whole movie. can’t stop ranting yeah… for those who haven’t seen it, you might like it like everybody seems to but… i would not recommend it at all
April 1, 2008
#3
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.
April 1, 2008
#4
Beware! “Grave of The Fireflies” is nothing more than a story about Negligent Homicide!
The Plot- A boy losses his mother and his father to war. He is the sole protector and provider of his sister now. He goes to live with his relatives. They feed him, and provide him with shelter, but the boy doesn’t do much to contribute to the household. His aunt is very displeased with the boy and scolds him for his lazyness.
The boy decides to take his sister and leave. He finds an old shack down by a river. He can barely provide for himself let alone his sister. All he has to do is appologize and go back to live with his aunt and everyone will be safe and healthy again. He is stubborn and refuses to do so, so he steals and does what ever he can to provide food and shelter for his little sister. He ends up failing at all of these tasks and as an end result because of his stubbornness his little sister becomes sick and eventually ends up dying as a result.
What I found while watching this film that this wasn’t really a tragic war story, it was more of a story about Murder. This boy murdered his sister by not providing care for her. The entire time all he had to do to end her suffering was to return to his relatives and live. He never did so, and thus he watched her die slowly.
The modern day equivalent would be seeing a person bleeding to death on a sidewalk, and refusing to call an ambulance for them. Instead you go into riteaid and buy some bandaids, and attempt to stop the bleeding yourself, when obviously they need a Doctor. Someone you can get them to in one phone call, but you never decide to do it. Mainly because the only phone you have is your cell phone, and you hate using it because it’s serviced by Verizon, and you hate their company because they have bad customer service.
Same identical plot.
April 1, 2008
#5
I love Japanese Animations. And this is a well made movie but I have to give it one star.
It makes me so sad that I cried whenever I thought about it even days after I watched the movie. But this is not the reason I give it one star.
It is like making a German World War II movie. How can you totally skip the part that killing Jews and performing all nasty bio chemical experiments on them, and only tell the world their life actually sucked more than the Jews?! This movie does not give a slightest hint about it was the Japanese who actually started the war, it does not mention what they felt about starting the war or what they felt about their victims. It just focuses on they lost the war and it really sucked!
At least Germans admit what they did and they feel sorry about it. At least Germans have never hid the truth in their history book or acted like the victim of the war. But Japan not only denies their invasion to China and killing people in China, but also acts like a victim of America.
I have sympathy to those Japanese people who suffered from the war. I believe there were people against the war. But there were people pro war and the war happened! It caused many pain and deaths to their victims. I also understand it is a post-war movie. But did all the pro war people disappear after the war? Oh I forgot, Japan is so big, maybe all the pro war people lived on an island that the author never got a chance to meet any of them? That explains why I don’t see them in the movie.
This movie is well made. It is brilliant! It managed to hide the truth and avoid the real issues. The author is a genius because it definitely portraits Japan as the biggest victim of the war.
Since Japan has never admitted and apologized for the war, for the pain and deaths they have caused, they will never be forgiven.