Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Grave of the Fireflies (“Hotaru no haka”)
Directed by Isao Takahata
1988/Japan
Shinchosha Company/Studio Ghibli
Repeat viewing
#787 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 8.4/10; I say 9/10

[box] Setsuko: Why must fireflies die so young?[/box]

Memorial Day is a fitting time to reflect on all the lives lost to war, including those of the most innocent. American should give thanks that civilians have not suffered the horrors of world war on our shores.  This animated film poignantly brings home the cost of war to children in other parts of the world.

The date is September 25, 1945.  The place is Japan.  The narrator informs us that he died today.  His name is Seita and he is a young adolescent boy, between about 12 and  14.  The film tells his story and that of his pre-school age sister Setsuko.

Their mother is killed at a shelter in a fire bombing; father is away at war.  The children head for an aunt’s house.  The aunt takes them in but increasingly makes it clear that they are an inconvenience.  Furthermore, she constantly nags Seita about his failure to work in the war industry or fight fires during the air raids.  Eventually, she starts withholding the best of the food from the children on the ground that they are not pulling their weight.

Disgusted, Seita decides the children will be better off on their own and takes his sister to an abandoned shelter in the country.  At first, they live a kind of carefree life but rapidly the struggle for survival takes over.  Seita resorts to stealing but even that is not enough.

It is fortunate that this film is animated.  A live action film detailing the hardships these poor children must suffer would be just too hard to take.  This is sad enough as it is.  The animation is extremely beautiful, as is the music.  The relationship between the brother and sister is very touching and kind.  The film is not totally downbeat.  There are many lovely scenes of the children playing together.

Trailer