Cinema
Grave of the Fireflies
火垂るの墓
Isao Takahata · 1988
Synopsis
Kobe, summer 1945, under American incendiary bombs. Seita, fourteen, and his little sister Setsuko, four, lose their mother, who dies of her injuries, according to Turner Classic Movies and Anime News Network. An aunt takes them in but makes them feel, according to AlloCiné, that they must earn their keep. After a quarrel, they leave her and settle in an abandoned shelter, where fireflies give them a brief happiness; food soon runs short, however, and they must fend for themselves in a country that is losing the war.
Context
The source is a largely autobiographical story by Nosaka Akiyuki, published in 1967 and awarded the Naoki Prize; Nosaka, according to an American channel devoted to classic films, said his sister's death was almost identical to that in the story. The director refused to have it presented as an anti-war film, which could not prevent another war, according to Otaku USA and Asia Times; he wanted to show what happens when a society no longer helps its members in hardship. The film was released in Japan on 16 April 1988, as a double bill with another film from the studio, made at the same time.
Who it is for
About an hour and a half of animation, released as a companion to a children's film, yet it follows two orphans through hunger and war.
Prizes and reception
Roger Ebert counted it among the greatest war films; Turner Classic Movies sees in it perhaps the best film of its director.
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