review by artbyjade from Epinions.com
Grave of the Fireflies
Isao Takahata’s HOTARU NO HAKA (Grave of the Fireflies) -1988
Apr 27 '03 (Updated Apr 28 '03 )
Pros
The Story, animation, music
Cons
not a one
The Bottom Line
This is one of the best War films ever made. It is an extraordinary ANIME journey of two children into the horrors of armed conflict.
Full Review Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
One of the most beautiful and touching movies ever made, Grave of the Fireflies is an example of how Anime can , in the hands of a master, become a Great work of Art. It puts anything Disney Studios has produced (ever) to shame. In fact, it puts almost anything else on film to shame. So if you have believed all this time that anime was for children only, this movie should change that perception forever.
TAKAHATA and The History of the Film
There is no IMDB biography on Isao Takahata. However, scanning the Internet will bring you up to date- faster, if you can read French.
The director was born in 1935, and attended Tokyo University . He joined another animation studio, Toei Doga, in 1959. http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/takahata/
His first film, Horus :The Prince of the Sun, 1968, is still considered one of the best examples of anime, and it is here that Takahata met Miyazaki, (SPIRITED AWAY) who worked as an animator for the film, They were friends, and collaborated on many a project. Tokuma was a publishing house, the parent company of Ghibli, the animation studio Miyazaki began in 1984. Takahata was a co-founder of that company, with his long time friend. Takahata has worn various hats in the studio, from composer, to producer, to director, and his filmography is relatively sparse. But his hand is visible in many projects, even those without his name attached.
In an interview in 1992, Takahata cited some of his influences as being Pail Grimalt of France,Frederick Back of Canada and Yuri Norstein of the Soviet Union . His style was the old fashioned cell method of animation, and he brought forth some of the "manga " (which means “woodcut prints” ) work to show the origins of anime, which began with the gesture sketches done by Hokusai and eighteenth century watercolorists , not as many Westerners believe, with Disney. He chooses animation over live film because he has more control over the expression, believing that the drawing itself conveys the message more effectively . The art creates its own reality, it does not imitate reality. (Think of the implications of showing a real life 5 year old in the latter stages of starvation!)
Many of the works produced by Ghibli studios were part of a Disney deal with Tokuma publishing to distribute Internationally, specifically to the United States . This movie was not part of the deal, and the film was sponsored by a different publishing house. As a result, it was 1994 before this 1988 film was offered to American audiences. The studio, thinking it might be too depressing , released it in Japan paired with My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari No Totoro) , a Miyazaki film. Interestingly, the DRAW was for the Grave of the Fireflies, not the Miyazaki film, since the work was based on a well known novel (which is really a short story) by Akiyuki Nosaka.
The story is semi-autobiographical. The author , Nosaka, had indeed lost his little sister as a result of malnutrition, and the story was his way of dealing with his guilt over surviving. The incident of “going the wrong way” in the opening scenes, was drawn from Takahata’s own experience with fire bombing as a child in Okayama . Takahata does not build a world of fanciful things, his environment is based on real things of this world. It reconstructs real places, as they were, some that only are remembered through this film since the 1995 Earthquake . And that pretty much sums up the director’s view on what is important. The reality of our earth offers enough flight of fancy for him. Some of the scenes in this movie are beautiful, the imagery is rich , the statements poetic-and highly imaginative, but it is a reality that lives within the film itself, and needs go no farther.
Takahata is adamant about his films being presented as they are made, and one has to admire the artist for that. He claims they are first and foremost representative of the world he lives in, Japan . But like all great art, this film transcends the boundaries between races and nations and shows us the story of a boy and girl, whose lives were changed by war. There are no other messages here, only the love of brother and sister, and the story of what happened to them. In an interview included in the DVD Takahata expected the message of Seita’s willful pride, and poor judgment as being a cautionary tale to children of the day. But no audience to date has taken that as the important meaning in this film. It is sympathy or empathy that we feel for this boy, and horror at the destruction and tragedy of war.
CINEMATOGRAPHY/ANIMATION
Certainly in 1988,. The method of animation for Ghibli studios was entirely manual, the work of several artists on cells, which are then photographed sequentially to create the animation. Even now, much of their animation is “old school” although YAMADA -KUN (My Neighbors the Yamadas, another Takahata film) is the first anime film released by Ghibli with NO traditional cells, allowing computer animation to do its thing. Nevertheless, this is a beautifully animated film. The boy, and the little girl were perfectly created, and their declining changes depicted gradually , graphically as well as in the narrative. The story is told from the adolescent’s perspective, and we don't get an outsider’s view. We are expected to identify with the main character Seita. The experience at once becomes more authentic and personal as we see the world through his eyes. The depictions of the bombing raids are horrific, but do not include the Atomic bomb, something for which I am grateful.
The quiet moments of this film, (and they are nicely balanced) , shows a world that could be viewed both ways. It is a world that still has some natural beauty and some wonders to the eyes of children. It portrays at the same time, a world of adult indifference, death and destruction. Kindness is a rare commodity, and love is lost in the scramble for survival. But the serene moments , such as the “discovery “ of thousands of fireflies, by the children a genuine delight. `
The image of the fireflies of course, has resonance in the fire bombing as the families are running for cover, in several sequences in the flick, and in the end, for the children themselves, who are anonymous and as insignificant perhaps to the rest of the world as fireflies are to the children. Setsuko in sadness one day, makes a tiny grave for fireflies who died , as she says, “So soon”.
The MUSIC , composed by Yoshio Mamiya is haunting, and beautiful. The theme will stay wth you long after the film is over. The flutes imitate nature sounds and there are wonderfully intricate details in the sound track as well. There is a special clavichord like voice that plays in the scenes that are happy flashbacks to better times, that have a distinctive sound.
DVD EXTRAS
This Two DVD set was issued Central Park Media, and includes a lengthy interview with Ebert,
the film critic, about this movie, an interview with Isao Takahata, the director , a feature about the digital remastering of the film, as done by the central park media group, and a brief introduction by the author of the book , Nosaka, as well. There is also an art gallery, and some storyboards, and several trailers for this movie (and others) . You can watch the movie in English, or hear it in Japanese, with English subtitles. It is a nicely comprehensive package, that I certainly recommend for anyone who grows to love this movie -And I assume that would be anyone who sees it.
THE PLOT
The story is told by a ghostly narrator. He says
“ September 21, 1945 . That was the night I died”
- by way of introduction to the story. From here on the story will be told by flashback, starting from a fire bombing on the village of Kobe , in Spring of 1945.
Seita is a boy of 15. He has a sister, Setsuko who is 4 years old. His father is in the navy, fighting the War. His mother, who has heart problems, trusts him with his sister (who she cannot carry ) , and some tasks, and goes to the shelter. After burying some food items 'just in case' Seita turns to go to the shelter, with Setsuko strapped to his back. But he goes the wrong way, and never makes it to the right shelter. After the air raid, he finds the house has burned down (along with all the others in the neighborhood) and he goes to the school, where a temporary first aid station has been set up.
Seita finds that his mother has been severely injured, and is bandaged head to foot for severe burns. That night, she dies before she can be transferred to a hospital. Seita does not tell Setsuko, although he has his mother’s cherished ring. The children go to find a distant aunt, who takes them in. When they bring the stuff they have stashed away, they at first are treated well, and everything seems OK. But one of the fine details of this movie show the portions given to the children to be devoid of solid stuff, while the woman’s daughter and border are given plenty to eat.
When the aunt finds out that the mother has really died, and they don't hear anything from the father, she grows impatient with the children, who to her eyes, do nothing to help , are rude, and wasteful. First she takes the mother’s kimonos to sell them for rice. The tension grows, both the aunt and the boy are stubborn and full of pride. Setsuko is always hungry, and Seita thinks he can do better on his own, so they go to live in an abandoned cave, away from the selfish aunt. She does not seem sorry to have them go.
Seita has some money from the bank, and believes wrongly, that it will be all he needs to keep him and his little sister going. They make lives for themselves, and even settle into a routine. But money is worthless when food is short, and even more cash can not get him more food. And Setsuko, already weakened by hunger, now has diarrhea. The rest of the movie will show what happens to this brother and sister, as they are “forgotten” by the world, and the war times just get worse. You should have more than one occasion to cry during this film. Even granniemose, who never cries at movies, had tears running flowing freely as she watched this film.
CAST and PERFORMANCES
Note: I have listened to both the English version and the Japanese version. Unlike live action Japanese movies, the anime doesn’t seem to suffer greatly from the English-speaking. They are both good. But although it is easier to watch in English, it still sounds better in Japanese.
Tsutomu Tatsumi /J. Robert Spencer as Seita. This boy comes alive in the film. We can feel what he feels, and understamnd how he feels he can take care of himself and his sister. After all, he had been doing this even when their mother was alive, because of her heart disease. We see him bravely fight tears to keep Setsuko’s spirits up, and see him trying in hundreds of ways, to care for his sister. I don’t think I could ever forget this marvelously complex and complete character.
Ayano Shiraishi/Rhoda Chrosite as Setsuko. -This little girl is a perfect four year old. I especially enjoyed her trying to be polite as she was taught, with her Japanese way of sitting. She is full of fun, and full of life and full of love for her brother. But she is 4 years old, and needed more than love to live. In his interview for the extra on this DVD, Takahata tells an interesting story of finding the little girl he chose as the “voice” of Setsuko. When they found her, they began to create the animation from her voice and patterns, rather than trying to “plug her in”. You will absolutely fall in love with this little girl. You will be unable to stop yourself.
Yoshiko Shinohara/Veronica Taylor as Mother. This character is only briefly in this film. She sounds more helpless and feminine in the Japanese version, though. The English speaking actress went on to do many if not all the “Pokeman “ movies. She was only sixteen when she did the voice for Grave of the Fireflies.
Akemi Yamaguchi/Amy Jones as the Aunt. -This character is portrayed as close to a villain as we get in a specific character in this film. In both versions, she sounds harsh and abrupt, although it would not be hard to understand her point of view. She is definitely not pleasant to be around, and even in GOOD circumstances, she and Seita would have clashed. She seems envious of the perks Seta’s family got because his father was in the Navy, although there was little evidence of preferential treatment or extra goodies. As in all the other characters, it is the details of their behavior that create such real people, and “Aunt” is no exception.
FINAL RECOMMENDATION
There is nothing about Hotaru no Haka that I don’t love. It was groundbreaking as the first “sad and depressing” anime full length feature, which in a way, was a landmark event in the history of Anime. The animation is gorgeous, the music is wonderful. The characters are unforgettable. The story is moving and eloquent. Why not let it speak to YOUR heart? I promise you won’t regret it.
Grave of the Fireflies is just... Jaw dropping- wow. And I'm making it my business to see anything I can from them in addition to Miyazaki .
Ok, I know I'm just wasting words.. I honestly do not know what I can say that can do these films justice, they really have to be seen to understand how great they are.
***Interestingly enough, the story appeared in the 1978 Japanese quarterly, Vol 25, Issue 4, pp 445-463 , which for reasons too complicated to go into here, I actually subscribed to at that time. I had actually read the story 35 years ago!
Recommended
Yes